Will Gingrich force Romney to debate capitalism?

Take a look at the film that could change the 2012 presidential election, a “documentary” looking at Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded. It has been bought by Newt Gingrich’s PAC, Winning Our Future, and is about to be shown all over South Carolina, the next primary state.

The film attacks the main rationale for Romney’s candidacy – that he’s an experienced job-creator who “knows” how the economy works. And I’d say it’s pretty effective. A lot of voters are going to identify with the people who lost their jobs. They’re not going to shrug and say “well, that’s capitalism, it’s tough sometimes”, which is Romney’s response. This feels like the “swift-boating” Kerry received from Bush early in the 2004 campaign, except it’s coming from Romney’s own party. It definitely shows Newt’s bitter side (following Romney’s attack ads in New Hampshire). But it could also presage a different type of debate about capitalism in the election. In the past, the Republicans have simply said they are in favor of capitalism and free markets, and offered little distinction between creative and destructive strains. In his own way, for whatever reason, this is a mainstream Republican candidate saying there are differences in the way companies behave – they are not all the same. It’s going to be interesting to see if Romney sticks with his “my opponents hate capitalism” line, or whether he is forced to debate what sorts of capitalism he is in favor of, and which he disavows. Hopefully an actual debate might follow.