Florida swing: Romney bounces back

ORLANDO, Fla. — Mitt Romney is back.

Romney was visibly jubilant on Friday as about 500 supporters chanted his name.

Less than a week ago, Romney’s position of dominance over the Republican presidential field was upended when Newt Gingrich crushed him in the South Carolina primary.

But two solid debate performances and a new round of polls showing him back on top in Florida have gone a long way to restore confidence to the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign. 

{mosads}“I had fun last night, I’ve got to tell you,” Romney said, referring to Thursday’s GOP debate, where Romney landed punch after punch on the man who has emerged from political oblivion to become Romney’s most menacing opponent.

Gingrich who after the first Florida debate complained that the media had stifled him by preventing the audience from cheering or applauding, reacted to the second debate by accusing Romney of planting supporters in the audience after the crowd sided with Romney in Thursday’s debate.

Romney seemed amused by the former Speaker’s accusations.

“It’s like Goldilocks,” Romney said. “The porridge is too hot, the porridge is too cold.”

At his side on the makeshift stage set up in a packed paint factory in Orlando were two prominent supporters whose endorsement could go a long way in Florida: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who won the GOP nomination in 2008, and Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño (R), who could sway Florida’s Puerto Rican voters into Romney’s camp.

After a week where it seemed Romney’s hold over the race in Florida could be in serious jeopardy, his stars have started moving back into alignment. A Quinnipiac University poll released Friday showed Romney has opened up a 9-point lead over Gingrich in Florida. Those results were backed up by three other polls showing Romney with a lead of between seven and nine points.

Just four days ago, the numbers were reversed, with Gingrich on top in three consecutive Florida polls.

Adding to Romney’s fortunes was a pair of television ads released by Gingrich’s campaign that triggered two Republican luminaries to publicly shame him.

After Gingrich aired an ad calling Romney the “most anti-immigrant candidate,” Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising star in the party, called the ad inflammatory and inaccurate. A day later, Gingrich pulled the ad out of deference to Rubio.

Then on Friday, Gingrich’s team released another ad, this one quoting former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) saying that “if a man’s dishonest to get a job, he’ll be dishonest on the job,” followed by a narrator calling Romney a dishonest man.

Small problem: The clip was from four years ago, and Huckabee wasn’t consulted before his likeness found its way into Gingrich’s ad. Huckabee hasn’t endorsed in the GOP primary and has said he won’t. Even if he were to endorse, it is highly unlikely he’d throw his support behind Gingrich.

“Any use of an out of context quote from the Republican Presidential primary 4 years ago in a political ad to advocate for the election or defeat of another candidate is not authorized, approved, or known in advance by me,” Huckabee said in a statement.

Romney also has money to burn while Gingrich has little. While Romney flies around Florida on chartered planes, reaching disparate corners of the state, Gingrich is traversing the state by bus.

Romney is far outspending Gingrich on television ads in Florida, an expensive media state where the air war is of utmost importance in presidential politics. Deep-pocketed super-PACs supporting Romney have helped expand his financial margin.

And Romney’s two other opponents have all but bailed on the Sunshine State. Texas Rep. Ron Paul is campaigning in Maine and has acknowledged he doesn’t have the cash to compete in Florida. Former Sen. Rick Santorum is raising money in Washington and taking a breather in his home state of Pennsylvania.