Newt and Romney display dramatically different responses to payroll tax debate in DC, or why Newt is a better presidential candidate

Romney is playing it safe. Newt is showing that he is a leader. From the Christian Science Monitor:

Mitt Romney refused to be pinned down Wednesday on how Congress should break an impasse that threatens to raise taxes for 160 million workers — the latest pressing policy debate the Republican presidential hopeful has sidestepped. Rival Newt Gingrich, in contrast, castigated Congress for "an absurd dereliction of duty." . . .
In Iowa, Gingrich called a two-month extension "insufficient" and scolded the Democratic-controlled Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama's administration for "lurching from failure to failure" and marveled: "They can't figure out how to pass a one-year extension, so the Senate leaves town?"
"It's game-playing," added the former House speaker, who stopped short of criticizing House Republicans and their leader Ohio Rep. John Boehner. Gingrich also did not criticize Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader from Kentucky who signed off on the short-term extension.
The different postures over the payroll tax extension played out against a backdrop of intensifying rancor - and a dispute over negative advertising - between Romney and Gingrich with the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses drawing close. . . .

BTW, I can't find any comments by Ron Paul on this issue.