In the first few minutes of debate, Rick should say something like this – “Governor Romney, it is a shame that you cannot talk about your liberal record in MA! So you have decided to take out the all the conservatives that are running in the primary – first it was Governor Perry & then you went after Speaker Gingrich with lies & innuendos and now you are using the same tactics against me!  Your smear campaign using multimillion dollars from wall street crony capitalists might have worked in the past but the Republican primary voters have realized that you are MA Moderate like Speaker said & who has flip-flopped on every conservative principle.  There is hardly a dime of difference between you & Obama”

Basically Rick should empathize with Newt & get him on his side quickly in the first few minutes!

Hopefully Newt will respond in a positive manner (taking the cue!) and go after Romney in a similar fashion.  This is his chance to regain his momentum after the dull performance in FL.   He should take a similar attack line like Rick & say that he is not going to stand there when MA moderate is destroying a fellow conservative!  It is despicable what Romney is doing by his personal attacks on Rick’s family!  He should act as the conservative elder who will be doing the blocking & defending Rick – get some street credit with the conservatives!!

Let us hope they double-team on Romney & put him on the defensive because the CNN folks would love to see a fight between Newt & Rick…after all the Obama team (that includes all major media including CNN) definetely wants Romney to be the republican nominee!