The Republicans are looking for direction after the three states that have voted have picked three different winners. In Florida, with its large media markets and significant Hispanic population, Romney and his allies have seized a staggering advantage in the television ad wars as they try to reclaim his front-runner status. They have reported spending $14 million combined on commercials, many of them critical of Gingrich. The amount is at least seven times the investment made by Gingrich and an organization supporting him. Gingrich on Thursday said he was infuriated by the barrage. The nature and volume of the ads are similar to those that badly damaged him in Iowa a month ago. “I think all the weight of his negative advertising and all the weight of his dishonesty has hurt us some,” Gingrich said. He strongly hinted he will be more aggressive in Thursday’s debate after taking a much more moderate tone in Monday’s debate. He has rode his feisty debate performances to lead in polls, and he has said he would not attend debates where the audience is told to keep quiet. Romney, who sharpened his own attacks on Gingrich on Monday, acknowledged that the live audience at Thursday’s debate may be fairly raucous. “That’s always fun and entertaining, I know,” Romney said. “If you all could get there, we’d love to see you all there cheering.”
Obama, meanwhile, is trying to use the momentum from his annual State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday in the second of a three-day, five-state tour in politically key states. The president talked manufacturing on Wednesday, and on Thursday he will promote energy in the resource-rich western states of Nevada and Colorado, which hold their presidential caucuses within the next two weeks. Obama remains personally popular with Americans but is vulnerable in his bid for a second White House term because of voter dissatisfaction over his handling of the recovery from the recession that produced the steepest U.S. economic decline since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Florida was particularly hard hit in the downturn, with unemployment of 9.9 percent. Romney, speaking Thursday at a factory that is closing because of hard times, called Obama’s administration a “Groundhog Day” presidency in which nothing gets better. Electablity remains the top concern for Republican primary voters, according to polls taken in the primary and caucus states, so Republicans are eager to paint a contrast with Obama. Romney has long led in the Florida polls, but Gingrich’s upset victory last Saturday in the first-in-the-South primary in South Carolina revitalized his candidacy and raised questions about Romney’s staying power. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is also on the ballot, as is the libertarian Texas Rep. Ron Paul. But Santorum has been sinking in the polls as Gingrich rises, and Paul is bypassing a Florida campaign to concentrate on upcoming caucuses in other states. Both are not as well funded as Romney and Gingrich.