FL Primary: Romney & Gingrich Stay Focused [VIDEO]

The two leading candidates in Florida’s Republican primary, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, are staying focused on voters with events around the state this weekend.

On Saturday, Romney has events planned in Pensacola and Panama City. Gingrich will be in Stuart, Port St. Lucie, Brooksville, Orlando, Winter Park and West Palm Beach.

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Far away from Florida, Ron Paul is hosting a town hall Saturday morning at the University of Southern Maine, in Gorham, and similar events later in the day in the Maine towns of Freeport and Alfred.

Rick Santorum left Florida for a quick trip to Pennsylvania and plans to host a fundraiser Saturday night in Washington, D.C.

NBC asks Romney to remove news material from ad

NBC has asked GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to pull a television ad that’s made up almost entirely of a 1997 “Nightly News” report on Newt Gingrich’s ethics committee reprimand.

The “History Lesson” ad is running in Florida. It shows NBC anchor Tom Brokaw saying that some of Gingrich’s House colleagues had raised questions about the then-speaker’s “future effectiveness.”

Under Brokaw’s image is a line that reads — “Paid for by Romney for President, Approved by Mitt Romney.”

NBC spokeswoman Lauren Kapp says the network’s legal department has asked the campaign to remove all NBC News material from its ads.

Brokaw says he’s “extremely uncomfortable with the extended use” of his image.

Romney spokesman Rick Gorka says the campaign hasn’t received formal notification from NBC and had no immediate comment.

Gingrich says space exploration in US tradition

Newt Gingrich is likening his call for establishing a colony on the moon to Abraham Lincoln’s push to build a transcontinental railroad at a time when the technology didn’t exist to do it.

His says critics don’t understand the power of science, technology and entrepreneurship to change the future.

Earlier this week, Romney said he’d fire any business executive who recommended spending huge sums on colonizing the moon.

Paul says GOP presidential race has `ways to go’

Ron Paul says the Republican presidential race has “a ways to go” and he doesn’t intend to get out or get behind another candidate anytime soon.

The Texas congressman was campaigning Saturday in Maine, which holds caucuses beginning Feb. 4. He spoke to an overflow crowd at the University of Southern Maine and held an outdoor rally in Freeport.

Paul says competing in Florida, which holds its primary Tuesday and awards all its delegates to the winner, didn’t make sense for his campaign. He’s focusing on other caucus states including Nevada, Colorado and Minnesota.

Paul says he hopes his GOP rivals would adopt his noninterventionist foreign policy views.

Leadership scramble: GOP rivals vie for title

The Republican presidential contenders are making a pitch to voters that sounds a lot like a children’s game: Follow the leader.

When Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich aren’t puffing up their own leadership credentials, they’re running down the leadership skills of one another and President Barack Obama.

In a race where all the candidates are trying to out-conservative one another, stressing leadership credentials gives the GOP rivals a way to try to distinguish themselves.

And in a year when Obama’s own leadership skills are seen as one of his weakest qualities, it gives the Republicans another arrow in their quiver as they argue over who would be most electable in a matchup with Obama come November.

Feisty Gingrich stakes campaign on electability

Newt Gingrich has staked his presidential bid on one idea: He is best positioned to defeat President Barack Obama.

Even some of his supporters seem to be struggling to buy that argument, an indication that chief rival Mitt Romney’s efforts to undercut Gingrich may be working.

Interviews with more than a dozen Republican voters at Gingrich’s overflowing rallies this week suggest that many Florida voters love his brash style as they look for someone to take it to Obama. At the same time, they have lingering doubts about whether the Republican’s bomb-throwing alone will make him the strongest Obama opponent.

Romney and his allies have been working hard to stoke those doubts with Florida Republicans ahead of Tuesday’s primary. And the GOP’s establishment wing has joined in.

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