“Obama is big food stamp; he is little food stamp. They both think food stamps are OK,” Gingrich told a crowd of several hundred inside a country music club just south of the Las Vegas Strip. “I don’t think food stamps are a future for America. They’re a necessary bridge back to getting a job and back to being independent of government.”
He added: “It isn’t good enough for the Republican Party to nominate Obama-lite.”
Despite the attacks, Romney is expected to coast to victory today. He won handily in 2008 and his organization, in place for months, is considered superior to those of his rivals. He is also riding a wave of momentum from his win in Florida.
Romney, who held a business roundtable discussion earlier in in the day in Reno, did not directly respond to Gingrich.
A Romney spokeswoman said: “Newt Gingrich’s flailing attacks are the sign of a candidate trying to distract from his own record to save his sinking campaign.”
Gingrich’s has vowed to continue fighting for the nomination all the way until the Republican National Convention in August, but there have been signs in Nevada his campaign is stumbling.
While Romney has been barnstorming across the state, Gingrich has limited his events to one or two a day, mainly in Reno and Las Vegas. He canceled an appearance with popular Governor Brian Sandovalcq, who is unaligned.
Gingrich and his staff were sent reeling after initially endorsing suggestions that Donald Trump was going to back the former House speaker on Thursday. Instead, Trump endorsed Romney.
Meanwhile, Romney kept his focus on Obama, saying he didn’t deserve credit for yesterday’s news that the national unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percentcq last month, the lowest since February 2009.cq
The news sent the stock market soaring to its highest level since before the 2008 financial crisis began.cq
“This president has not helped the process. He’s hurt it,” Romney told the business leaders.
More broadly, Romney showed the benefits of his organization in Nevada.
The mayor of Reno, Bob Cashell,cq thanked Romney for calling him on his cellphone after an air race crash in September that killed a pilot and 10 spectators.cq
