I’m biased, but I think the real winner last night was CNN and I feel confident I’d say that even if they didn’t send me a paycheck. After that disastrous and embarrassing NBC debate, Wolf Blitzer held his own, did not get devoured by Newt Gingrich, and engaged in a lot of substance without a lot of random questions like . . . oh . . . say . . . should states ban birth control.

Let me tell you first who lost the debate because it was in a moment with Wolf Blitzer. There was a moment he asked Newt Gingrich about Romney’s tax returns and Newt tried to say the question was inconsequential. He tied his napkin around his neck, pulled up his fork and knife, and was just about to sink his teeth into Wolf when Wolf pushed again. The crowd heckled Blitzer. Gingrich drooled over the moderator he was about to consume. “Wanna try again,” he asked mischievously. Wolf Blitzer, instead of hopping on Newt’s plate pushed once more, pointing out Gingrich had, just this week, attacked Romney on these things. The crowd reacted a bit and Gingrich suddenly tried to get everyone on stage to call a truce. Romney had none of it, instead calling on Gingrich to, in effect, man up and say to Mitt’s face the things he says elsewhere.

The crowd turned on Newt. They laughed. They jeered. Blitzer, saved from the jowls of moderator eater, went straight in to a tax question based on Romney’s taxes and Newt’s tax plan with Newt still on defense from the prior question. The moderator ate Newt. Live by the debate, die by the debate, and Newt Gingrich died in some clever rhetoric, losing the crowd both in that instance and on Mitt Romney’s stock ownership.

Mitt Romney won the debate. He and Gingrich behaved like petulant children, but Romney got under Newt’s skin in a way Newt did not get under Romney’s skin and Newt came off looking the lesser of the two. Additionally, Mitt Romney finally offered up a bold and clear answer on his wealth with a strong defense of capitalism and self-made men. There was no apology and no defense. It was precisely what he needed to do.

Though he may have won, Rick Santorum had the best night of any candidate and though Romney won on points, Santorum won on style and substance. He offered up the strongest attack yet on Romneycare, pointing out how if Romney is the nominee we cede an important line of attack on Obamacare. He rattled Romney in a way Newt did not. He acted like the adult in the room. He got himself some supporters from Newt Gingrich I’m pretty sure.

Then there was Ron Paul. Many of us quickly dismiss Ron Paul, but his performance was stellar. He offered extremely sound responses on healthcare, education, border security, and more. Very few of the questions were on foreign policy, which is where he tends to go off the reservation. Last night he came off as warm, funny, and right on the mark. It was his best debate performance. Santorum and Paul benefited from Romney and Gingrich’s constant bickering.

But Romney did what he had to do. He stopped any swing back from Gingrich. His performance more likely than not helped him secure Florida unless Gingrich can pour in money and manpower in the next 24 hours.

I’m biased, but I think the real winner last night was CNN and I feel confident I’d say that even if they didn’t send me a paycheck. After that disastrous and embarrassing NBC debate, Wolf Blitzer held his own, did not get devoured by Newt Gingrich, and engaged in a lot of substance without a lot of random questions like . . . oh . . . say . . . should states ban birth control.

Let me tell you first who lost the debate because it was in a moment with Wolf Blitzer. There was a moment he asked Newt Gingrich about Romney’s tax returns and Newt tried to say the question was inconsequential. He tied his napkin around his neck, pulled up his fork and knife, and was just about to sink his teeth into Wolf when Wolf pushed again. The crowd heckled Blitzer. Gingrich drooled over the moderator he was about to consume. “Wanna try again,” he asked mischievously. Wolf Blitzer, instead of hopping on Newt’s plate pushed once more, pointing out Gingrich had, just this week, attacked Romney on these things. The crowd reacted a bit and Gingrich suddenly tried to get everyone on stage to call a truce. Romney had none of it, instead calling on Gingrich to, in effect, man up and say to Mitt’s face the things he says elsewhere.

The crowd turned on Newt. They laughed. They jeered. Blitzer, saved from the jowls of moderator eater, went straight in to a tax question based on Romney’s taxes and Newt’s tax plan with Newt still on defense from the prior question. The moderator ate Newt. Live by the debate, die by the debate, and Newt Gingrich died in some clever rhetoric, losing the crowd both in that instance and on Mitt Romney’s stock ownership.

Mitt Romney won the debate. He and Gingrich behaved like petulant children, but Romney got under Newt’s skin in a way Newt did not get under Romney’s skin and Newt came off looking the lesser of the two. Additionally, Mitt Romney finally offered up a bold and clear answer on his wealth with a strong defense of capitalism and self-made men. There was no apology and no defense. It was precisely what he needed to do.

Though he may have won, Rick Santorum had the best night of any candidate and though Romney won on points, Santorum won on style and substance. He offered up the strongest attack yet on Romneycare, pointing out how if Romney is the nominee we cede an important line of attack on Obamacare. He rattled Romney in a way Newt did not. He acted like the adult in the room. He got himself some supporters from Newt Gingrich I’m pretty sure.

Then there was Ron Paul. Many of us quickly dismiss Ron Paul, but his performance was stellar. He offered extremely sound responses on healthcare, education, border security, and more. Very few of the questions were on foreign policy, which is where he tends to go off the reservation. Last night he came off as warm, funny, and right on the mark. It was his best debate performance. Santorum and Paul benefited from Romney and Gingrich’s constant bickering.

But Romney did what he had to do. He stopped any swing back from Gingrich. His performance more likely than not helped him secure Florida unless Gingrich can pour in money and manpower in the next 24 hours.

We were spoiled by the New Hampshire and South Carolina polling. Those states weren’t stagnant in voter opinion, but they at least moved at reasonable speeds, and allowed for a clear understanding of what was going on.

Florida is different. After swinging 20 points to Newt Gingrich, has now gone 10-15 points right back to Mitt Romney.

Read More →

We were spoiled by the New Hampshire and South Carolina polling. Those states weren’t stagnant in voter opinion, but they at least moved at reasonable speeds, and allowed for a clear understanding of what was going on.

Florida is different. After swinging 20 points to Newt Gingrich, has now gone 10-15 points right back to Mitt Romney.

Read More →

Liberal moderators of recent GOP debates have gone to great lengths to keep the candidates attacking each other and steer the discussion away from uncomfortable topics like the economy, the budget and the debt ceiling. George Snuffleupagus, Diane Sawyer, John King and Brian Williams have set the bar pretty high, so Wolf Blitzer will have to get very creative at the CNN debate in Jacksonville. Here are some questions Wolf can use to keep the focus off of Obama:

1. Do you think any of your opponents were beat up on the playground as a child? If so, why?
2. Newt said beet sugar is more important than cane sugar. Why would he say that? Which type of sugar do you think is more important?
3. Does Mitt Romney use the same hair gel as Jon Edwards? If so, should that disqualify him?
4. Where do you stand on contraception in gay households in states that don’t permit gay marriage?
5. If we can solve the problem of illegal aliens by relying on them to do self-deportation, can we also cut police department staffing and rely on self-arresting criminals?
6. Terri Schiavo died 7 years ago, but I don’t think Brian Williams fully explored the issue in the last debate. Do you think her parents had more right to make her medical decisions than her husband?
7. When Jeb Bush was Governor of Florida, he frequently held press conferences in both English and Spanish. Should we be conducting this debate in Spanish?
8. If elected President, would you have Margaritas in the White House served with or without salt?
9. Is it culturally sensitive for FSU to have the Seminole as their mascot?
10. Mitt—you hired undocumented workers as gardeners. Should all gardeners in Florida be subjected to self-deportation?
11. The University of North Florida doesn’t have a football team. Is that fair?
12. There is a famous photo of an alligator and an anaconda that got in a fight in the Everglades. Should the photographer who took the photo lose his health insurance for trespassing on federal property?
13. Should dependent children of undocumented workers be allowed to vote without showing ID?
14. Should Che Guevarra have been self-deported?
15. Boxers or briefs?

Roland Martin and I are going to be covering the South Carolina primary from rainy Columbia, SC tonight. We’ll be at Liberty Tap Room located at 828 Gervais Street, Columbia, SC 29201 if you want to stop by.

Consider this an open thread.

Roland Martin and I are going to be covering the South Carolina primary from rainy Columbia, SC tonight. We’ll be at Liberty Tap Room located at 828 Gervais Street, Columbia, SC 29201 if you want to stop by.

Consider this an open thread.

During the 2008 campaign, the media never opened a debate in the Democrat primary by asking Hilary Clinton how missing documents from the Rose law firm showed up at the White House, or questioning her claim that she landed under sniper fire in Bosnia. Nor did they ever open a debate questioning Obama about his his cocaine use in college, his missing transcripts and birth certificate, or his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

When Newt fired back at an obvious media ambush during the opening question of the GOP debate in South Carolina, the mainstream media ratcheted up their attacks. Was it a coincidence that ABC decided to air their ‘surprise’ interview with Newt’s ex-wife after the last debate—and only hours before the South Carolina primary? Was it a coincidence that John King cited the ABC smear story to open the debate? Newt was right to be outraged, and his surge in support after his fiery answer shows that many voters feel the same way.

One thing is clear—the mainstream media isn’t even pretending to be impartial anymore. Republican candidates are constantly attacked and forced to defend themselves against every innuendo, while Obama gets a free pass on every issue. The double standard is now so obvious and so extreme that the media isn’t even making a pretense of being objective anymore.

After Newt fired back at ABC and CNN with both guns blazing, Ann Curry once again tried to ambush Newt during a live interview on NBC Today. First, she accused him of being racist because he called Obama a “food stamp President.” She went on to quote a New York Times editorial that implied that Newt and all South Carolina Republicans are racist:

“By mixing falsehoods with racial condescension, Newt Gingrich brought a raucous presidential debate crowd to its feet on Monday night in South Carolina, further cheapening his reputation and that of the state Republican Party…

In South Carolina, where a Confederate flag still waves on the front lawn of the State Capitol largely because of the efforts of the state Republican Party, it remains good primary politics to stir up racial animosity and then link it to President Obama.” –The New York Times

Curry wrapped up by asking Newt “Are you intentionally playing the race card to win votes?” Once again, Newt smacked down the liberal media ambush with a clear, forceful and passionate response:

“Modern liberals are totally off the deep end. When conservatives care about the poor and conservatives offer ideas to help the poor and conservatives suggest that the poor would rather have a paycheck than a food stamp, the very liberals who have failed them—at places like The New York Times—promptly scream ‘racism’ because they have no defense for the failure of liberal institutions which have trapped poor children in bad schools, trapped them in bad neighborhoods, trapped them in crime-ridden situations. Liberal solutions have failed, and their only answer is to yell ‘racism’ and hide.”

In their attack on Newt, both Ann Curry and The New York Times failed to mention that the confederate flag isn’t flying over the South Carolina Capitol—it’s across from the Capitol over a memorial to Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. And the compromise to fly the flag over the Confederate War Memorial was brokered by a Democrat governor more than a decade ago. This is not a Newt issue, and it’s not new issue. Now the liberal media is trying to use it to dismiss Newt’s surge in South Carolina by painting the whole state as racist. In their eyes, that might somehow diminish Newt’s success by convincing the rest of the country to ignore South Carolina completely.

We all know the mainstream media is biased. Now it seems they’re trying desperately just to remain relevant. Meanwhile, the surge in support for Newt after his smackdown of the liberal media is showing what everyone else already knows. The mainstream media is a joke.