Mitt Romney appears to be so anxious to hit Newt Gingrich on anything and everything, he completely misses the point that the mainstream media moderators of debates are the most powerful people in the room. They can shape, or frame questions, or an entire debate however they please. The Right feels they often do so to our disadvantage. Romney would appear to disagree.
Mitt Romney dismissed Newt Gingrich’s attacks on the media during an appearance on Wednesday’s “Fox and Friends.”
The former Massachusetts governor lambasted this strategy. “It’s very easy to talk down a moderator,” he said. “The moderator asks a question and then has to sit by and take whatever you send to them. And Speaker Gingrich has been wonderful at attacking the moderators and attacking the media. That’s always a favorite response for the home crowd….
The home crowd Romney references would be you, apparently aka the rubes that enjoy that sort of thing. It would appear as though Mitt relates more to the authority figures the media moderators represent. While one can perhaps argue the fine points, what seems to remain clear is that when speaking off the cuff, Mitt’s political instincts are terrible. Why else would he allow himself to be portrayed as defending the media, while talking down to the Republican base?
And why, after seeing how well (or not) the media’s attacks on Gingrich went over in South Carolina, would you take their side for a political argument?