Newt's Contribution to The 2012 Cause

Newt Gingrich blasted his way to the top of the South Carolina GOP primary on Saturday.  How did he accomplish this feat?  What are the misconceptions about the victory?  What does it really mean for 2012?  The victory in SC was triggered when Newt turned a huge negative story about the breakup of his previous marriage, which nearly everyone concurs was a malicious hit piece, and turned it into a huge positive by pointing out that the media is not an honest broker.  Voters were not necessarily agreeing with Newt on policy as much as they were sending a message that the double-standard of the main stream media with respect to how they deal with the two parties has reached the critical point.  To demonstrate the two different standards, let's look at how the media broke the story of John Edwards cheating on his terminally ill wife during his presidential run in 2008.  Oh, wait a minute, they ignored that story.  Okay, it was probably just an oversight.  Let's look at the story about the former student of Barack Obama's Constitutional Law class who had negative things to say about his former professor.  Oh, wait a minute, we are not sure that such a former student exists because we have never had a reporter speak to a former student.  Maybe there weren't any, but the media seems to have no interest either way.  Apparently, there are no former girlfriends or former friends because we have no history other than a campaign of celebrities telling us about the brilliance of Barry Sotero (oh yeah, it's not as romantic, but that is his real name about which you probably have not heard any reporting on either).  What I find interesting about this topic is that Democrats do not seem to agree that a bias in the media exists and they seem unwilling to consider the topic, yet some interesting polling data was released last week which shows that 40% of the American public identify themselves as Conservative.  On the other hand, 21% identify themselves as Liberal.  If this is the case, why does the media continue to frame the news where Conservatives are portrayed as a fringe and rabid minority?  The Conservatives (do not read that as Republicans) understand this bias and Newt's combative approach with the media is serving him well.  The real threat to the Democrats is if Newt is successful in, finally, highlighting this issue to the rest of non-Liberal, non-Conservative America (39%).  If the independent/moderates begin to side with the Conservatives (79%) on this bias issue, the control of the debate will be wrestled away from the main stream media and we will be witness to a landslide election in Nov 2012.  The misconception about Newt's win is that Conservatives agree with his attack on Bain capital and free enterprise or that they condone his personal behavior.  His victory last night was a strident repudiation of the media, nothing more, nothing less.  Lastly, the most overlooked story of this past week is that conventional wisdom by the "wizards of smart" in Wash, DC has been that the Tea Party has lost steam since the election of Nov 2010.  Sarah Palin spoke on Tuesday and mentioned that she would vote for Newt if she were a South Carolina voter in the interest of keeping the debate of issues ongoing.  It is no coincidence that Rick Perry made the decision to suspend his campaign no less than 24 hours later sending his voters to Newt.  Newt went from trailing 29-21 to Romney, to winning 40-28.  The huge turn around for Gingrich shows that the Tea Party is in the background and ready to pounce.  Romney has been ignoring this group at his own peril believing that he can run a campaign of the past.  In the end, if Newt does one thing well, it will be in turning the country against the media and its propping up of the current President.  For now, Romney was unable to deliver the knock out punch in SC and we move on to Florida.  As for which candidate will get the votes from the Conservatives, Tea Partiers and Republican Moderates in the general election - it has not changed:  ABO - Anyone But Obama!!