Was Romney’s ‘same wife’ answer a dig at Gingrich?

Published November 10, 2011 5:00am ET



When asked about his record of political inconsistencies during the CNBC debate last night, Mitt Romney answered, “I’ve been married for the same woman for — excuse me, for 42 years. I’ve been in the same Church my entire life. I worked at one company, Bain, for 25 years and I left that to go off and help save the Olympic games.”

In contrast, Newt Gingrich is married to his third wife, Calista, and he converted from Southern Baptist to Roman Catholic shortly after his third marriage.

Pundits are already predicting that Newt Gingrich is in line to be the next “anti-Romney.” Gingrich is a strong conservative, but his personal history is messy.

If you keep hearing this line on the trail, it could mean that this was an intentional effort by the Romney campaign to contrast him with the former-speaker.