Jeff Lord is aghast that Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry would criticize Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital.

Now that Romney appears to be edging closer to the GOP nomination, are conservatives now prohibited from criticizing capitalism? Is Romney’s private sector record off limits? Isn’t there a difference between being pro-market and pro-business? I mean it’s not like this is the first time Romney has been criticized in this manner. It was Mike Huckabee who said that Romney “looked like the guy who laid you off.” As I recall this helped Huckabee defeat Romney in Iowa four years ago.

Let me put it another way. If Newt & Perry’s criticisms of Romney (and for that matter Huckabee’s) are anathema to Reagan conservatism then Romney should have no problem winning South Carolina in ten days time.

But South Carolina’s current unemployment rate is 9.9%. Granted the unemployment rate fell by 0.6% in November, the state’s largest monthly drop in 35 years. But that’s still far higher than Iowa’s unemployment rate of 5.7% and New Hampshire’s unemployment rate of 5.2%. If Romney can convince South Carolinians he can bring about prosperity then he can win. But Romney won’t win if they believe he will bring them pink slips. Romney has his work cut out for him.