Republicans should rejoice. When it comes to understanding the threat of the media, in a news-making interview with our own Larry O’Connor yesterday, Governor Mitt Romney proved he is no John McCain.
Whether the story is true or not, I don’t know, but sometime during the 2008 election, someone told me that our candidate, John McCain, said something to the effect of, “All these relationships I’ve made in the media are really going to pay off now.”
And we all saw how that worked out.
A media desperate to see elected President a man with no record, no executive experience, and more shady characters in his past than can fit under a bus, put all their thumbs on the scale and eviscerated McCain and most especially his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin.
Using phony fact-checkers, they killed any narrative that might hurt Obama. Using lies, they turned the huge crowds Palin amassed into a negative. Using their power to control the narrative, they turned Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and Father Pfleger into smaller stories than those about Palin’s children and the books she never wanted banned.
McCain, who had been beloved as a media-approved Republican while giving George W. Bush a hard time, was caught completely off guard and flat-footed. Suddenly his media pals turned his maverick quality into damning narrative about how erratic and unstable the Senator was. And after he stepped into their narrative with the suspension of his campaign, they finished him off.
I’ve been watching all of the GOP candidates closely this year, and the top quality I’ve been looking for is someone who understands the political threat Obama’s Media Palace Guards represent and who has the wherewithal and stomach for the coming fight against them. Anyone can beat President FailureTeleprompter. It’s getting to him through the media that’s going to be brutal, and thus far I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing from our likely nominee, Mitt Romney.
Yesterday’s Breitbart.com interview not only made clear that Romney completely understands how corrupt the media is, but also that he’s not afraid to point to them and call them by name. It’s one thing to know who your enemy is, it’s quite another to let them know you know. And I’m not the only one to see these remarks as something deeper than rhetoric to please the base. At Hot Air, Tina Korbe writes:
It didn’t sound like a gimmick, though. It sounded as though a single week with the media in general election mode has sobered Mitt Romney into the recognition that the MSM really will do what it can to forward Barack Obama’s reelection effort and thwart Romney’s effort to unseat him.
Indeed. Between the Romney campaign’s handling of the Obama-led attack on Ann Romney, their quick moves yesterday to capitalize and help push into the media the “Obama ate a dog” Twitter meme, ads like this one, and a willingness to say on the record that the left-wing media will hit him at every turn — I’m feeling good about our presumptive nominee.
Romney’s hit the ground running, seems to understand the lay of the land, and knows just who his political enemies are — declared and undeclared. He’s also polling much better than the media would’ve let us think possible.
I’ve always liked our chances, but I’m feeling better by the day.