With Mitt Romney’s campaign embracing the Ryan plan for Medicare today more closely than he has before — surrogate John Sununu called it a “conservative litmus test” — it’s worth considering that Romney’s platform is now far more defined than Newt Gingrich’s. Whatever Romney’s past shifts and ideological transgressions, at this point in the primary contest he’s faced far more pointed questions than Gingrich about what should be done to fix the economy, health care, energy, immigration, etc.
Of course, Gingrich has a long track record. But because he’s been, up until the past few weeks, in the background during GOP debates and on the campaign trail, no one else has really bothered to force him to define his positions and explain the inconsistencies in his record. So the strange situation is that by far the most substantive questioning Gingrich has faced has come from Glenn Beck, in a wide-ranging interview.
That one interview underscores the point that Gingrich’s platform is relatively underdeveloped. It contained probably four or five different points that will be fodder for Romney and others’ attacks next time they’re on stage together. You have to assume that more such opportunities will arise as Gingrich’s public exposure increases.
