New Hampshire 2012: The high-horse primary
Newt Gingrich scoffed that Mitt Romney is serving up “pious baloney.” Romney huffed that Republican rivals who criticize his role with Bain Capital are against free enterprise, just like Barack Obama. And Jon Huntsman hissed that Romney evidently believes that firing workers is good while serving the country is bad.
Campaigns often close on a testy note. But New Hampshire’s Republican contest this time seemed notable not so much because candidates were taking the low road as because so many were up on a high horse.
Republicans as a rule are folks who tend to criticize the tendency of Americans to rush to victimhood. The rush was certainly on around here, with every hour on the trail seeming to produce new examples of bristling indignation and self-righteous, how-dare-you-say-that reprisals.Charges of hypocrisy were the order of the day. But it was obvious perhaps to everyone not directly in the fray that, on many of the most pointed exchanges, the shoe fit the accuser and accused equally well.
The work Romney did at Bain Capital—including buyouts and “restructurings,” also known as layoffs — has been well-known for years and hasn’t previously drawn much scorn from pro-business Republicans who believe these unsentimental practices help markets work efficiently.