Attacks on Romney getting personal

Just weeks ago, Newt Gingrich told Occupy Wall Street protesters to "take a bath" and "get a job." But now that he's taking a bath, and not getting the job that he wants, he might as well buy a sleeping bag and a tarp.


By now you've heard Mr. Gingrich calling Republican front-runner and former venture capitalist Mitt Romney a looter.


A 28-minute film distributed by a Gingrich-loving superpac even calls Mr. Romney a "predatory corporate raider." (It does not call Mr. Gingrich, who bagged about $1.6 million in consulting fees at government-seized mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, a "predatory corporate historian.")


At Bain Capital, Mr. Romney acquired and merged companies, loaded them with debt, fired employees, slashed vendors, disappointed customers and sometimes collected enormous fees just for mismanaging enterprises into certain bankruptcy.


This is what private-equity investors do. They often have 10 losers for every big winner. Mr. Romney didn't wake up at Bain Capital each morning and say, "Hmm. How could I create a new job today?" It's not the role of venture capitalists to create jobs, as Mr. Romney now pretends. It is to create as few jobs as possible so they can bag envious profits.


He often talks about pop culture. His new campaign uniform is a pair of jeans -- usually Gap or Tommy Bahama -- paired with a button-down patterned shirt. He wears suits on the debate stage, but only an hour after a morning debate in New Hampshire he was already in new clothes for a campaign event. His wife, Ann, often testifies about Romney's easy-going, even fun, personal side.


At an event here Saturday, 55-year-old Ruth Williams approached Romney to tell him she was jobless. Romney opened his wallet and handed her a wad of cash, according to ABC News. A Romney spokesperson confirmed he gave her between $50 and $60.


But Romney still hasn't been able to fully shake the image of a dull, straight-laced Wall Street banker with an awkward side who lacks charisma.


And some of his rivals are stoking the notion that the wealthy former venture capitalist from Boston is out of touch with many Americans -- and far from the kind of president an average-Joe voter would want to down a beer with.


Gingrich's campaign has assembled a highlight reel of clips of Romney's verbal miscues, and openings he's created for rivals to attack, from this campaign and from 2008. One clip is from a Fox News interview in which Romney says the family's Irish Setter traveled in "a completely airtight kennel, mounted on the roof of our car.