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Al Gore Romney

January 22, 2012 by · Comments Off on Al Gore Romney 

Al Gore Romney, Mitt Romney said today that Newt Gingrich’s claim of creating jobs while he was a member of Congress in the 1980s was “like Al Gore taking credit for the Internet.”

“The speaker the other day at the debate was talking about how he created millions of jobs when he was working with the Reagan administration,” Romney said at a rally at Wofford College.

“Well, he had been in Congress two years when Reagan came to office, that’s like saying 435 congressmen were all responsible for those jobs.”

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, repeated today that his view is “government doesn’t create jobs, it’s the private sector that creates jobs.”

Gingrich has taken issue with Romney’s record at Bain Capital, a private equity firm that invested in start ups and participated in leveraged buyouts of companies. In the buyout of firms, some workers lost their jobs.

Romney’s campaign circulated the transcript of an interview of a businessman who told Bloomberg TV that Gingrich praised private equity firms in a paid speech.

“We paid him $40,000, and this gentleman praised private equity more fulsomely than I could ever do it,” Paul Levy, managing director of JLL Partners, told Bloomberg TV.

The attacks on Gingrich are part of an increased effort by the Romney campaign to take down Gingrich, whose debate appearance on Monday night has given him renewed momentum going into Saturday’s primary here.

The Romney campaign launched two new web ads: One titled “Undisciplined” featuring former congresswoman Susan Molinari and another featuring former senator Jim Talent called “Unreliable Leader.”

Both served with Gingrich when he was House speaker, and they described an environment of “chaos” during Gingrich’s tenure. Molinari and Talent also held a conference call Wednesday morning to criticize Gingrich’s record and temperament.

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