Three Weeks to Go

The Bet: Two days after the Republican presidential candidate debate in Des Moines, Democrats are still talking about Mitt Romney's extended hand Rick Perry left hanging. Democrats have kept their attention on Romney for months even as other Republicans surpassed Romney in the polls. It gives you an idea which candidate they fear most. Having said that, as they focus on Romney, Romney has switched his focus. Romney had concentrated on Perry more than any other Republican since Perry entered the race. However, with Perry's fall following disappointing debate performances, he apparently is no longer top of mind for Romney. Romney's now concentrating on the man who's passed him in Iowa and national polls: Newt Gingrich.

Here are a few releases I had today to show you what I mean:

First, from the Democratic National Committee...

The Coverage Continues: “Mitt Romney Hounded for 10k bet”

Mitt Romney hounded for $10K bet
CBS News // Stephanie Condon
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is getting hammered by both his Democratic and Republican opponents for challenging Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet on Saturday night, leaving the former Massachusetts governor on defense. Romney challenged Perry to the $10,000 bet during Saturday night's debate after the Texas governor accused Romney of once advocating for using Massachusetts' health care mandate as a national model. "This was an outrageous number to answer an outrageous charge from [Perry], and it's been proven wrong time and time again, and he keeps raising it," Romney said on Fox News Monday morning. "I said 'Okay, let's put something outrageous there'. It's like saying 'Hey, I'll bet you a million bucks X, Y, or Z.'"

DNC Puts Out Romney-Themed $10,000 Bill
TPM//Benjy Sarlin
According to a DNC spokesman, Democrats are planning on distributing this photo shopped $10,000 “Romney Reserve Note” to state parties and other allies around the country.

The DNC Introduces The $10,000 Romney Bill
Huffington Post//Sam Stein
Sensing a bit of opportunity to cast Mitt Romney as even more of a plutocrat, the Democratic National Committee is advising party officials to start deploying the below image, depicting the former governor as the face on the $10,000 bill. The hook here is Romney's way-too-casual $10,000 bet to Rick Perry during Saturday night's debate. A DNC official emails that "these are going out to state parties and allies and will be showing up in all types of iterations" included being "handed out at events and protests used online and perhaps even on merchandise." The risk (if there is one): it presents Romney as president -- after all, presidents' faces are usually the ones that end up on currency.

Mitt Romney’s $10,000 mistake
The Washington Post // Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s baffling decision to propose a $10,000 bet with Texas Gov. Rick Perry during Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate dominated the after-action analysis of the event. But did Romney simply have a bad night? Or will the $10,000 bet continue to haunt him in the final three weeks before the Iowa caucuses? That depends on who you ask. The Romney team is adamant that no harm has been done. Stuart Stevens, Romney’s lead ad maker, called the proposed bet a “very real moment” in which his candidate “back[ed] somebody down with a bluff bet.”

DNC boss: Romney $10K bet a loser
Politico//MJ Lee
The Democratic National Committee stepped up its attack on Gov. Mitt Romney’s $10,000 bet, with chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Monday calling out the Republican presidential hopeful for being “out of touch” with America’s middle class and working families. “I think the governor consistently makes clear that he remains out of touch remarkably with the middle class, with working families,” Wasserman Schultz said on Fox News, calling Romney a candidate that “continues to stand up and fight for the wealthiest most fortunate Americans.” In Saturday’s GOP presidential debate, the former Massachusetts governor drew fire from all directions after he offered a $10,000 bet to Rick Perry to challenge the Texas governor’s claim regarding a detail in Romney’s book.

DNC, Perry Go After Romney for $10,000 Bet
Real Clear Politics // Caitlin Huey-Burns
Mitt Romney is taking heat from both sides of the aisle for offering a $10,000 bet to rival Rick Perry during Saturday's Iowa GOP presidential debate. The former Massachusetts governor bet the Texas governor that he didn't advocate for a national health care plan in a previous edition of his book, "No Apology." The Democratic National Committee and Perry released Web videos slamming Romney for the bet, painting him as a candidate who is out of touch with average Americans. Soon after Romney offered Perry the wager -- which his campaign downplayed as hypothetical because he was sure he was right -- in Des Moines Saturday night, the DNC went on the offense with the Twitter hash tag "#What10kBuys." The DNC came out with a Web video the next day titled "Mitt Romney: Simply Out of Touch -- Ten Thousand Times Over," which attacks the former governor for calling a $1,500 tax cut for the middle class a Band-Aid, for joking that he is "also unemployed," and saying "corporations are people."

Mitt Romney hounded for $10K bet
CBS News // Stephanie Condon
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is getting hammered by both his Democratic and Republican opponents for challenging Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet on Saturday night, leaving the former Massachusetts governor on defense. Romney challenged Perry to the $10,000 bet during Saturday night's debate after the Texas governor accused Romney of once advocating for using Massachusetts' health care mandate as a national model. "This was an outrageous number to answer an outrageous charge from [Perry], and it's been proven wrong time and time again, and he keeps raising it," Romney said on Fox News Monday morning. "I said 'Okay, let's put something outrageous there'. It's like saying 'Hey, I'll bet you a million bucks X, Y, or Z.'"

Did Romney's $10,000 Bet Hurt His Chances With Iowa Voters?
ABC 9 KCRG, Cedar Rapids//Jillian Petrus
Political analysts say former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney made a big mistake during a GOP debate in Des Moines Saturday night. Romney was fielding attacks from Rick Perry over healthcare policy. In an effort to stop the criticism, Romney challenged Perry to a 10,000 dollar bet on Romney’s position on the individual mandate in the nation’s new health insurance law. Experts say the comment makes Romney appear disconnected with middle-class Americans, other’s suggest the candidate was just trying to make a joke to change the subject. Either way the backlash could not come at a worse time for Romney. With the caucuses less than a month away, TV9 spoke with Iowa voters to get their reaction to the remarks.

Romney’s $10,000 Bet Highlights Personal Wealth
AP//Steve Peoples
He could have bet a beer. Or maybe a steak dinner. But during a heated dispute with Rick Perry during Saturday night’s debate in Des Moines, Iowa, Mitt Romney extended his right hand and asked the Texas governor if he’d wager $10,000 to settle a dispute over his healthcare record. The rich bet instantly provided Romney’s opponents with new ammunition for their charge that he’s out of touch with middle-class America. “I’m just saying, you’re for individual mandates, my friend,” Perry said to Romney. “You’ve raised that before, Rick, and you’re simply wrong,” Romney responded, extending his hand toward Perry. “Rick, I’ll tell you what: 10,000 bucks?” Perry laughed it off: “I’m not in the betting business.”

Romney: Gingrich should return Freddie Mac money
AP//Kasie Hunt
Separately Monday, Romney further dismissed the $10,000 bet he offered Texas Gov. Rick Perry during a debate Saturday in Iowa. He called it "an outrageous number to answer an outrageous charge" — namely, Perry's claim that Romney changed language in the paperback version of his book that referred to support for a health care mandate. The bet sparked charges that Romney, a multimillionaire businessman, is out of step with the economic challenges facing ordinary people.

Mitt Romney's $10,000 bet: Will he survive it?
Christian Science Monitor//Ros Krasny
Republican Mitt Romney was back on familiar turf in New Hampshire Sunday, looking to steady his White House campaign after a potentially damaging gaffe over a wager he offered at a candidate's debate in Iowa. Speaking to reporters after a town hall meeting, Romney made light of the incident Saturday when he offered to bet Texas Governor Rick Perry $10,000 to prove that what Perry said about Romney's book about Massachusetts' controversial healthcare law was true. Perry said that in the first edition of his book that Romney wanted to impose a health insurance mandate at the federal level.

And this one is from Romney's campaign...

NOT THE HEADLINES NEWT WAS LOOKING FOR…

Fox News’ Brit Hume: “Does [Gingrich] really believe that what he did for Freddie Mac is similar to what Romney did at Bain? Probably not. But when Newt Gingrich feels threatened or upstaged, he sometimes reaches for whatever weapon comes to hand and just starts swinging. Just ask Paul Ryan.” (Fox News’ “Special Report,” 12/12/11)

Click Here To Watch

Associated Press Headline: “Study: Gingrich Tax Plan Would Worsen Deficit” (The Associated Press, 12/12/11)

· Tax Policy Center: Gingrich’s Tax Plan Would Blow A Huge Hole In The Federal Budget Deficit. “A new independent study says the tax plan by GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich would provide big tax breaks to the rich and blow a huge hole in the federal budget deficit. The analysis by the Tax Policy Center says households making more than $1 million a year would see their taxes drop by an average of 62 percent.” (Stephen Ohlemacher, “Study: Gingrich Tax Plan Would Worsen Deficit,” The Associated Press, 12/12/11)

Weekly Standard Headline: “Gingrich Hits Romney From The Left” (Weekly Standard, 12/12/11)

· Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes: “Newt Gingrich Has Adopted An Anti-Free Market Argument – A Favorite Of The Political Left – To Criticize Mitt Romney.” (Fred Barnes, “Gingrich Hits Romney From The Left,” Weekly Standard, 12/12/11)

American Spectator Headline: “Gingrich Attacks Romney From The Far Left” (American Spectator, 12/12/11)

· American Spectator’s Joseph Lawler: “Gingrich Has Basically Adopted The Language Of The Anti-Corporate Left With This Line Of Attack.” (Joseph Lawler, “Gingrich Attacks Romney From The Far Left,” American Spectator, 12/12/11)

Washington Post Headline: “Gingrich Slips: Shows His Nasty, Anti-Free Market Self” (The Washington Post, 12/12/11)

· The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin: “Gingrich Is Still His Own Worst Enemy And The Best Witness To Debunk The Canard That He’s A Tea Party, Pro-Free Market Guy.” (Jennifer Rubin, “Gingrich Slips: Shows His Nasty, Anti-Free Market Self,” The Washington Post, 12/12/11)

Huffington Post Headline: “Newt Gingrich Praised SEIU Head Andy Stern's Forward-Looking Vision” (The Huffington Post, 12/12/11)

· In One Of His Books, Gingrich Praised Former SEIU Head Andy Stern – “Who Remains A Close Adviser” To President Obama. “Yet Gingrich also worked with Andy Stern, the former leader of the Service Employees International Union … In his book … Gingrich praises the SEIU head, who remains a close adviser of the [sic] President Obama.” (Sam Stein, “Newt Gingrich Praised SEIU Head Andy Stern's Forward-Looking Vision,” The Huffington Post, 12/12/11)

Politico Headline: “Gingrich As Anonymous Attack Dog” (Politico, 12/12/11)

· Politico: Gingrich Was “Revealed As An Anonymous Source Hitting Back At A Mitt Romney Surrogate.” “There's a terrific nugget at the bottom of Trip Gabriel's piece on Newt Gingrich face his warts head-on [sic], with the candidate exhibiting some watch-what-I-say-not-what-I-do behavior, and revealed as an anonymous source hitting back at a Mitt Romney surrogate…” (Maggie Haberman, “Gingrich As Anonymous Attack Dog,” Politico, 12/12/11)

Savannah Morning News Headline: “Not A Lobbyist, Newt Gingrich Says, But It Looks Like He Was In Georgia” (Savannah Morning News, 12/11/11)

· “In 2004, The Former U.S. House Speaker Apparently Was A Lobbyist As It Was Then Spelled Out In Georgia Law, And Failed To Register As A Lobbyist, As The Law Required.” (Larry Peterson , “Not A Lobbyist, Newt Gingrich Says, But It Looks Like He Was In Georgia,” Savannah Morning News, 12/11/11)

· Politico Headline: “Lobbying, In Georgia” (Politico, 12/12/11)

Huffington Post Headline: “Michael Savage Offers Newt Gingrich One Million Dollars To Drop Out Of Race” (The Huffington Post, 12/12/11)

· Conservative Radio Host Michael Savage Offered Gingrich $1 Million To Leave The Race, Saying He Believes Gingrich Cannot Beat President Obama. “Conservative radio host Michael Savage has offered Newt Gingrich $1 million to drop out of the Republican primary race … Savage, who hosts the third-highest rated radio program in the country, outlined the reasons why he believed Gingrich was incapable of beating Obama.” (“Michael Savage Offers Newt Gingrich One Million Dollars To Drop Out Of Race,” The Huffington Post, 12/12/11)

National Review Headline: “Newt Is The Problem” (National Review, 12/12/11)

· Avik Roy: “Newt Gingrich Is One Of The Principal Abettors Of The Exploding Health-Care Entitlement State We Face Today.” (Avik Roy, “Newt Is The Problem,” National Review, 12/12/11)