Now, it's a three-front war in the GOP

Now, it's a three-front war in the GOP Hugh Hewitt Columnists Washington Examiner

By: Hugh Hewitt Examiner Columnist

 

Given that everything changed every 48 hours during the 10 days that separated New Hampshire from South Carolina, predictions about Florida are risky.

But it does seem likely that the winner of the GOP presidential primary race there will be the GOP's nominee.

Florida is a major swing state in the fall. It has many major media markets. It requires campaigns in two languages. It rewards the sort of organization that will be necessary for the Republican candidate to beat President Obama in November.

And it will feature two more debates, run, again, by Manhattan-Beltway media elites, who will also be running the fall debates, if indeed Obama agrees to any.

Nixon in 1972 didn't, and there is no law compelling anyone to do so. It would be good to push the MSM to push the president for an ironclad commitment to participate, but keep in mind the president's ironclad commitment that if you liked your health insurance, you could keep it.

Saturday's big win in South Carolina for Newt Gingrich was not an endorsement of the former speaker's resume or his platform. You would be hard-pressed to find many voters who could tell you what Newt is actually committed to doing.

But even the 60 percent who didn't vote for him in the Palmetto State can tell you what Newt is committed to being: aggressive, assertive, and especially confrontational with the Beltway-Manhattan media elite when the MSM manipulates the news and the debates, distorts the process, and repeatedly covers the president's rear.

No questions on Iran in the CNN, ABC and NBC debates? No questions about the president's treatment of Netanyahu? No questions about the veto of Keystone XL pipeline?

No questions about Solyndra, Operation Fast and Furious," Joe Biden's serial inanities, the unconstitutional recess appointments? Gibson Guitar, Boeing, the Environmental Protection Agency's generation and cement rules?

Nothing about cutting 20,000 Marines and up to 100,000 soldiers?

Newt's ex-wife is tracked down, but we never got an interview with Bill Ayers or saw the Rashid Khalidi tape? Romney's tax returns are demanded again and again, but we never saw the president's college or law school transcripts?

Newt's display of anger -- even the over-the-top characterization of John King as despicable -- got cheering from everyone who had wanted the GOP candidates to run straight at the MSM and their deeply corrupt insularity and embedded biases.

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum should not and will not attempt to imitate Newt because the former speaker's incendiary style on all things at all times is of a piece with who he is and who he has been.

But in quieter but no less firm and specific a way, they should simply reject most of the questions and explain at length why the bizarre spins attached to the MSM's coverage of the campaign are in fact pages from the Obama playbook, perfectly executed for the president they created and are now protecting, either consciously or as cogs in an unthinking, self-perpetuating, perpetual motion machine.

"Let me tell you why that question lets the president off the hook. ..."

"Let me tell you how this subject drains time from Iran and the accelerating collapse loss of Egypt to the Islamists. ..."

"I can't help but think that Mark Steyn or Mark Levin might have phrased that question in a neutral fashion, but stripping away the liberal spin you put on it. ..."

Each of the would-be nominees is fighting a three front war -- with his GOP competitors, with the president, and with the big media.

Newt won because he has, alone, fought on that this third front, the proverbial "Russian front" for all GOP candidates in all races. It is Newt's singular contribution to have opened that campaign. Mitt and Rick should join that fight as well.

Examiner Columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2012/01/now-its-three-front-war-gop/2123486#ixzz1kJQZUGT1