Race Reshaped, Rivals Target Gingrich in G.O.P. Debate

By JEFF ZELENY and JIM RUTENBERG
NYT

DES MOINES — Newt Gingrich offered a robust defense of his views on the Middle East, his lucrative work after leaving Congress and his conservative credentials during a spirited debate here on Saturday night as his Republican presidential rivals urged voters to take a hard look at his candidacy.

With only three weeks remaining before the Iowa caucuses open the Republican nominating contest, Mitt Romney raised questions about Mr. Gingrich’s temperament, saying that by making a claim in a recent interview that the Palestinians were an “invented people,” Mr. Gingrich had thrown “incendiary words into a place which is a boiling pot.”

Mr. Gingrich took fire for most of the evening, at many points seeming to relish his new role as the leader in the field. He kept his sense of humor and his calm, even as he delivered several attacks of his own, particularly against Mr. Romney.

But when the question of his two divorces and acknowledged extramarital affairs were implicitly raised, Mr. Gingrich listened as his opponents pointedly highlighted their long marriages. He conceded that voters would need to make up their own minds.

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