Mitt Romney’s five rockiest moments from the S.C. debate

Nothing about the equation for the GOP presidential nomination changed as a result of the debate Monday night in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Mitt Romney is still the overwhelming favorite--and, if anything, strong debate performances by both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum only increased the chances that the two will fracture the social conservative vote in the state primary, handing victory to Romney later this week.

But that doesn’t mean Romney had a good night. After a strong start, when the candidate effectively batted away questions about his work for Bain Capital, the private equity and buyout firm his rivals have said destroyed jobs, Romney continually found himself on the defensive and sometimes gave muddled answers.

Romney, at times, can be a different candidate when pushed out of his comfort zone and his rockiest debate moments have come when the unexpected arrives. Here’s a look at a few of Romney’s toughest moments from the debate:

1) Santorum’s ‘super PAC’ trap. Santorum artfully laid a trap by confronting him over a pro-Romney super PAC ad that suggested that Santorum supported voting rights for felons. Santorum, who tied the issue to the African American community (on Martin Luther King Day no less) pressed Romney to give his position on the issue. After Romney haltingly responded by saying that felons convicted of violent crimes shouldn’t be allowed to vote, Santorum sprung:

“That’s very interesting that you say that, Gov. Romney, because in the state of Massachusetts, when you were governor, the law was that not only could violent felons vote after they had exhausted their sentences, but they could vote while they were on probation and parole. If in fact you felt so passionately about this, that you are now going to go out and have somebody criticize me for restoring voting rights to people who have exhausted their sentence and served their time and paid their debt to society, then why didn’t you try to change that when you were governor of Massachusetts?”

Romney replied that as governor, he had to contend with a legislature that was 85% Democratic and went on to say that he couldn’t control super PACs running ads in his name (more on that later). Santorum won the round by making Romney appear to be halfhearted and free-floating on the issue. At the same time, however, voting rights for felons isn’t likely an issue that’s going to move primary voters away from Romney and most conservatives are likely to agree with him on the issue, not Santorum.

2) Releasing his tax returns. Rick Perry, who showed more fire in the belly than usual Monday night, but for whom the bell is seriously tolling, urged Romney early on to release his tax returns “so the people of this country can see how you made your money.” The boisterous crowd at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center cheered. “Listen, here’s the real issue for us, as Republicans, we cannot fire our nominee in September. We need to know now. So I hope you’ll put your tax records out there this week so the people of South Carolina can take a look and decide if, you know, we’ve got a flawed candidate or not,” Perry said.

Later in the debate, Romney was asked specifically whether he would release his returns -- and while he ultimately suggested that he would “probably” release them, he took a tortured path to getting to that answer, all while leaving his options open:

“You know, I looked at what has been done in campaigns in the past with Sen. [John] McCainand President George W. Bush and others. They have tended to release tax records in April or tax season. I hadn’t planned on releasing tax records because the law requires us to release all of our assets, all the things we own. That I have already released. It’s a pretty full disclosure. But, you know, if that’s been the tradition and I’m not opposed to doing that, time will tell. But I anticipate that most likely I am going to get asked to do that around the April time period and I’ll keep that open,” he said.

He was then pressed by moderator Kelly Evans whether he was promising to release his returns.

“I think I’ve heard enough from folks saying, look, let’s see your tax records. I have nothing in them that suggests there’s any problem and I’m happy to do so. I sort of feel like we are showing a lot of exposure at this point. And if I become our nominee, and what’s happened in history is people have released them in about April of the coming year and that’s probably what I would do,” he said.

Got that?

3) More on super PACs. Romney was again pushed by Gingrich on whether he would disavow alleged falsehoods promulgated by Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting him. After reiterating that federal law prevents him from contacting the super PAC directly, Romney went on to decry all federal campaign finance laws -- and the man who helped enact the leading one.

“We all would like to have Super PACs disappear, to tell you the truth. Wouldn’t it be nice to have people give what they would like to to campaigns and campaigns could run their own ads and take responsibility for them,” Romney said.

He was asked if he would call for the end of all super PACs if he were the nominee. “Oh, I would like to get rid of the campaign finance laws that were put in place McCain-Feingold is a disaster, get rid of it. Let people make contributions they want to make to campaigns, let campaigns then take responsibility for their own words and not have this strange situation we have people out there who support us, who run ads we don’t like, we would like to take off the air, they are outrageous and yet they are out there supporting us and by law we aren’t allowed to talk to them,” he said. (It didn’t help matters, however, that Romney later referred to Restore Our Future as “my super PAC.”)

McCain-Feingold, as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act is known, laid down much of the groundwork for modern campaign finance law, a framework that is swiftly being dismantled by a series of court rulings and agency decisions. It was a passion project of John McCain, the former presidential nominee who endorsed Romney earlier this month in New Hampshire.

Romney now apparently believes campaign spending shouldn’t be regulated at all and that candidates should be able to accept unlimited contributions from corporations. He believed just the opposite in 1994, when he ran for Senate against Edward M. Kennedy, according to this clip posted by BuzzFeed.

Romney has also taken full advantage of campaign finance laws. Not only has he appeared at fund-raisers for the super PAC that supports him, but his personal PAC, from before he was a presidential candidate this cycle, has funneled money to Republican candidates nationwide.

4) Romney on hunting moose, or was it elk? After responding to a question on gun rights, Romney was asked whether he had gone hunting lately. He said he had recently gone hunting for moose -- then he paused and changed it to elk. It soon became one of those moments that showed Romney straining to speak the language of ordinary people and this time he came up short. “I guess I enjoy the sport and when I get invited I’m delighted to be able to go hunting,” he said. Few hunters would describe their feelings about the sport as a “delight.”

5) On Obama and jobs. Romney doubled down on job-creating figures while he was a principal at Bain, on Monday saying that his efforts helped create 120,000 jobs, a number that is sure to be debated in the coming weeks and months. He then accused President Obama of “not having a jobs plan yet” despite being in office three years.

While the merits of it are debatable, there is little arguing that Obama spent much of the second half of the year traveling the country touting what he called his “American Jobs Act.” Romney may believe that plan falls short, but that’s not what he said.

Here’s Romney speaking about super PACs and other aspects of the debate in an interviw with Sean Hannity: