Mitt Romney Opts for Battle on Two Fronts

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Who is Mitt Romney?

The GOP candidate's decision to fight on two political fronts ahead of Super Tuesday has left undecided Republican voters to wonder which candidate the campaign wants them to vote for.

Mitt Romney

Romney is still locked in a struggle with his Republican opponents, but he's also going after President Barack Obama now, as the former Massachusetts governor has hurled attacks over the past week at the three men he sees as the key obstacles to his goal of reaching the White House.

Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Obama could represent a deeper conflict of self-identity for Romney.

Gingrich flanked Romney in South Carolina about his life as a private equity titan who wouldn't release his tax returns. Santorum won conservative voters in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri by touting his conservative record in the Senate against Romney's as a governor. Obama and his campaign have jabbed Romney on various issues as they see the candidate as the likely GOP nominee.

The problem is that Romney has made it difficult for voters to find a clear message as to which Republican he is: The one who can beat the president or the one who can't deflect a couple of has-been GOP players.

Romney is familiar with, but hasn't won his GOP battle.

"As Newt Gingrich visits Ohio, he still has questions he needs to answer about his work for the lobbyists at Freddie Mac," Romney said last Tuesday in a statement. "Ohioans have suffered during the housing crisis, while Speaker Gingrich was using his influence and connections to promote Freddie Mac's agenda in Washington."

Romney's campaign made a strategic decision to highlight Gingrich's Freddie Mac problem in Florida to parry the former speaker's unending condemnations of the former governor's private equity work that cut jobs and bankrupted companies.

Romney pointed out that Gingrich's consulting for the mortgage giant played an integral role in the housing crisis, which hit Florida harder than most other U.S. states. Essentially, Romney admitted that some of his private equity projects failed, but he said failure came with the territory and that he had more successes across his business career. On the other hand, as Romney told it, Gingrich helped a mortgage corporation even when it was clear they had promoted unhealthy lending practices.