Kristol defends his concerns about Romney's record at Bain, insisting that the "2010 GOP majority was anti-Wall Street as well as anti-Washington":
Romney, if he's to be the nominee, will have to do more than smugly dismiss concerns about aspects of modern finance as simply an assault on free markets. It will be fun for the Romney campaign over the next few days being defended by conservatives and free marketers against Newt's assaults. It was fun in 1992, when I was in the Bush White House, having our allies ridicule arguments, first by Pat Buchanan and then by Perot, as silly and uninformed. It wasn't so much fun losing a few months later.
Aaron Goldstein focuses on South Carolina:
If Newt & Perry's criticisms of Romney (and for that matter Huckabee's) are anathema to Reagan conservatism then Romney should have no problem winning South Carolina in ten days time. But South Carolina's current unemployment rate is 9.9%. Granted the unemployment rate fell by 0.6% in November, the state's largest monthly drop in 35 years. But that's still far higher than Iowa's unemployment rate of 5.7% and New Hampshire's unemployment rate of 5.2%. If Romney can convince South Carolinians he can bring about prosperity then he can win. But Romney won't win if they believe he will bring them pink slips.
The Dish 