Who knew this crowd would be setting the terms of the GOP nomination debate? (Think Progress)

Who knew this crowd would be setting the terms of the GOP nomination debate? (Think Progress)

“I’m for capitalism, I’m for free enterprise, I’m for entrepreneurs,” Gingrich told Fox. “There’s a big difference between people who go out and create a company — even if they fail — if they try to go in the right direction, if they share in the hardships, if they’re out there with the workers doing it together. That’s one thing. But if someone who is very wealthy comes in and takes over your company and takes out all the cash and leaves behind the unemployment? I think that’s not a model we want to advocate, and I don’t think any conservative wants to get caught defending that kind of model.”

Iowa and New Hampshire were disasters for Newt Gingrich, relegated to also-ran status. At that moment, he made a decision

It was what it looks like it was—a full denunciation of Mitt Romney's business record. It was a populist call to arms by someone claiming to represent the 99 percent, against the 1 percent.

Rush Limbaugh and the Club for Growth, among others, got the vapors. How dare Newt criticize the free market system? It was an attack on capitalism itself! Heck, much of what Gingrich was saying could've been heard at any Occupy encampment around the country! Rick Perry piled on, calling Romney's business record "vulture capitalism," but he was already irrelevant to the race.

On the other side of the issue was Rick Santorum, who assiduously defended Romney's business record.

"I just don't think as a conservative and someone who believes in business that we should be out there playing the games that the Democrats play, saying somehow capitalism is bad."

Pop quiz. Which anti-Romney candidate caught fire, and which one faded into irrelevance?

Put another way, this:

Or put yet another way, this:Translation: Republicans in the 99 percent don't like the guy with the Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island tax shelters.

It's a stunning turn of events. Last summer, all the Beltway press wanted to talk about was deficits and the Catfood Commission. Today, even the Republican nomination contest is revolving around Occupy's themes of rogue capitalism and income inequality.

That's why Gingrich has stayed on the attack over Bain despite a mass GOP establishment backlash. Because, quite clearly, it's working.