WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich was throwing wild punches against his opponents at a rally in Florida on Sunday, blasting GOP rival Mitt Romney for his moderate positions on social issues. Romney is 'a pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase moderate from Massachusetts,' Gingrich told an enthusiastic gathering of mostly senior citizens in The Villages, an hour north of Orlando. 'I am, in fact, the legitimate heir of the Reagan movement, not some liberal from Massachusetts,' he said to much applause. Trailing badly in the crucial Florida primary with just two days before voters head to their precincts, Gingrich tried to paint himself as the only Republican capable of defeating President Barack Obama and moving the country in a decidedly conservative direction. 'I am delighted that tomorrow Michael Reagan will be campaigning with me. Which should tell you how false the ads were this week by Romney that suggested that I wasn't a Reagan Republican,' the former Speaker of the House added. He struck a defiant pose against critics who charge him with racism in the wake of his claim that Obama will be known as the 'Food Stamp President.' 'I described something which is factually true,' Gingrich said. 'His failed economic policies have forced more Americans to apply for food stamps than any president in history.' A new NBC/Marist poll suggests Gingrich will place a disappointing second to Romney on Tuesday. Romney leads Gingrich 42 percent to 27 percent, with Rick Santorum a distant third with 16 percent. 'The bottom line in all this is Romney's sitting in the driver's seat going into Tuesday,' said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College.
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