In final New Hampshire debate, candidates go after Romney–very briefly

Republican presidential candidates debate in Concord, New Hampshire. (Getty Images)

CONCORD, N.H. -- They had to be poked, prodded and nudged to do it, but the Republican presidential candidates finally went on the offense against front-runner Mitt Romney during a Sunday morning debate--if only for a few minutes.

Going down the line, NBC News moderator David Gregory gave the candidates an opportunity to explain in front of the former Massachusetts governor why they thought Romney should not be the GOP nominee.

"There's a huge difference between a Reagan conservative and somebody who comes out of a Massachusetts culture with an essentially moderate record," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has been on the blunt end of Romney's media attack apparatus for weeks. "I think he'll have a very hard time getting elected."

Visibly frustrated after being slammed by Romney as a "lifetime politician," Gingrich hit back on stage, labeling Romney's claims about being a man of the private sector "pious baloney." (Watch the clip below.)

"You've been running consistently for years and years and years," Gingrich said. "So this idea that suddenly, citizenship showed up in your mind—just level with the American people, you've been running since the 1990s."

The debate began just 10 hours after the ABC/Yahoo! debate ended in Manchester. During that event, candidates largely failed to chip away effectively at Romney's record.

During the "Meet the Press" debate, Romney defended himself as a "solid conservative who brought important change to Massachusetts," and touted his long list of endorsements, including those from several New Hampshire officials. "I'm very proud of the conservative record I have," he said.

That's when Santorum jumped in.

"If his record was so great," he said, turning to Romney, "why didn't you run for re-election?" (Romney served one term as governor of Massachusetts.) Santorum, facing tough re-election odds in 2006, ran anyway and was trounced by double digits. "Why did you bail out?" Santorum said.When asked how conservatives could trust him to promote their agenda, Romney replied: "They've got my record as governor." That answer may come back to haunt him, offering an easy opening for attack over his support for a state-sponsored health care program.

Later in the debate, the focus shifted away from Romney, and moved toward discussions over how the candidates would promote policies that lower heating bills and whether they would champion gay rights. (Watch video of Mitt Romney championing gay rights below.) The banter during this time stayed relatively friendly, but the debate picked up again near the end when  moderators asked about ads run by "super PACs" that support Romney and Gingrich. This election cycle has seen an influx of non-campaign money spent on attack ads that have allowed the campaigns to essentially outsource their mud-slinging to outside groups. When pressed about the content of the ads his Super PAC ran against Gingrich, Romney said that if the ads were wrong or misleading, then they should be taken down.

Interestingly, both candidates said they had not seen the ads produced by the Super PACs that employ many of their former staffers, but then had no trouble listing the specific attacks within them.

"The rhetoric is a little over the top," Romney said of Gingrich's Super PAC ads.

"You think my rhetoric is over the top but your ads are totally reasonable?" Gingrich replied.

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Could the 2012 GOP nomination be drawing to a close? Candidates attack Romney, but fail to land lasting blows

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- It is somewhat astonishing, if not unjustified, that although only a small slice of voters have cast ballots in a single state where the winner emerged with an 8-vote margin of victory, the dominant question hanging over the contest for the Republican nomination is, 'Is it over?'

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been the major player here in the Granite State for the cycle so far. His slim victory in Iowa, bolstered by polls showing his opponents barely making a dent here and expanding support for him in South Carolina, makes for a formidable frontrunner status. So formidable, in fact, that it may be impossible to derail.

Naturally, the single biggest question heading into this weekend of back-to-back debates in New Hampshire was: what were Romney's opponents willing to do to alter the trajectory of his campaign?

"Nothing" seemed to be the answer to that question at the ABC/Yahoo debate on Saturday night. Yet by the time the candidates appeared on the NBC debate stage Sunday morning in Concord, the answer had changed.

In the opening moments of the debate, moderated by NBC's David Gregory, both Sen. Santorum and Speaker Gingrich seized  opportunities to chip away at Romney as a moderate, weak, unprincipled, and untruthful candidate for president.

Gingrich called himself a "bold Reagan conservative" in contrast to the "timid Massachusetts moderate" label he ascribed to Romney. Gingrich would not go as far to say that Romney is unelectable, but he made the case that Romney will have a tough time defeating President Obama because he doesn't provide as big, bold, and clear a contrast as Gingrich believes is required.

"I think he will have a very hard time getting elected," Gingrich said.

"He ran from Ronald Reagan and he said he was gonna be to the left just like Kennedy on gay rights and abortion, a whole host of other issues," Santorum said in reference to Romney's 1994 run for the US Senate in the Massachusetts.  "We want someone when the time gets tough--and it will in this election.  We want someone who's gonna stand up and fight for the conservative principles," he added.

Romney attempted to push back on the attacks coming his way by painting his competitors as life long politicians with no understanding of the real world economy because they lack his private sector business experience.

But Romney's argument was revealing in terms of how much he is willing to stretch to appear as an outsider to the political process. Romney claimed he didn't run for reelection in Massachusetts in 2006 because he had accomplished his goal of improving the state and that he decided to return to private business.

Yet, as Newt Gingrich quickly pointed out, Romney launched his presidential campaign almost immediately upon leaving the governor's office.

"Can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney?," Gingrich asked. "Just level with the American people," he added.

Ultimately, the Santorum and Gingrich attacks against Romney, and to a lesser extent the barbs that came his way from Huntsman, Perry, and Paul, were sharp but not sustained and may not have done the lasting damage they seek in order to upend the race.

These strong attacks go fundamentally after Romney's character, but they aren't particularly new. Nor have they had success  sticking to Romney over the course of the last year. Surprisingly, there is still a lack of substantial and sustained television advertising aimed at tearing down Romney along these lines; without more of it, it will be much harder for his opponents to gain traction.

Still, the candidates not named Romney may have the political press corps on their side.  There is always a desire among the press for a protracted race. That, of course, is in direct tension with the other strong desire: to be the first to declare the race over. As Romney's opponents attempt to rewrite the current narrative about his inevitability, they'll seek to exploit that tension.

Other popular Yahoo! News stories:

• In final New Hampshire debate, candidates go after Romney--very briefly

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Is this what the Republican candidates need to see in Iowa? Share your pictures.

Submitted by Andrea K. Swank, Stanton, IA

We have asked Yahoo! readers to share their photographs of what the Republican candidates need to see before (or during) the Saturday debate in Des Moines.

Andrea K. Swank sent in this picture of a homecoming parade in Stanton, Iowa. She wrote:

Residents look on, wondering will this be the last school homecoming parade for their town and many other excellent small schools all across Iowa that are facing consolidation or shutting their doors forever due to drastic funding cuts and declining enrollment.

Stanton, a small agricultural town of approximately 700, is the top performing school in their county and is one of the best schools in the state. The graduation rate is 100 percent. Seventy-four percent of graduates score 20+ on the ACT. People live here so their children can get the best education possible. [Schools are being closed] because current funding is based solely on enrollment numbers.

With the overhaul of education in the national spotlight, schools like Stanton's should be studied as a model example of success and not worrying about closing its doors.

What do you think the candidates need to see?

We've set up an Election 2012 Flickr group to collect and share the photos. Please include the city and state where the photo was taken, and a short description of 250 words or less, explaining why the candidates need to know about it. You can also email your photos to showthecandidates@yahoo.com. We will not be able to publish photos without contact information and a description.

Leave your questions in the comments, or send us an email. We can't wait to see what you think our politicians need to witness!

The debate is sponsored by Yahoo!, ABC News, the Des Moines Register, local affiliate WOI-TV and the Republican Party of Iowa.

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