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Gingrich also defended his recent statement that Palestinians were an "invented" people. Several of his rivals said they generally agreed with his description, but Romney said that with the remark, the former speaker may well have made it more complicated for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to move toward peace with Palestinians. He said it is important to show sobriety, care and stability, an unspoken accusation against Gingrich, adding, "I'm not a bomb thrower, rhetorically or literally." Gingrich responded by declaring he was a conservative in the mold of Ronald Reagan, a president who he said spoke the truth, as when he called the Soviet Union the "evil empire." Gingrich's decision to invoke Kennedy, the late senator from Massachusetts, served as a dual reminder
-- that Romney has been running for office since the mid-1990s and also that he lost to the man whose politics conservatives detested above all others. As for the question of whether he would have become a career politician if he'd beaten Kennedy, Romney tried to turn the tables, saying his defeat in 1994 "was probably the best thing I could have done for preparing me for the job I am seeking, because it put me back in the private sector." One of Romney's campaign calling cards is his career as a businessman, a time he says helped him understand how jobs are created. Paul has been airing television commercials in Iowa attacking the former House speaker, and Romney's campaign has become increasingly critical of him, bolstered by a multimillion-dollar television ad campaign that is financed by allies. Under questioning from Paul, Gingrich said he had never lobbied for Freddie Mac, a quasi-government agency that paid him at least $1.6 million to provide strategic advice. Paul shot back, "It's the taxpayers' money, though. We were bailing them out." By the debate's last moments, the contenders found something nice to say about one another, an obvious attempt to build their own support at the expense of others.
[Associated
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