The Other McCain

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Sunday Morning Coming Down in New Hampshire ‘Meet the Depressed’ Debate

Posted on | January 8, 2012 | 14 Comments

HOLLIS, N.H.
After my late night guzzling beer consulting with key sources at the Radisson Hotel bar last night, I slept in this morning at the home of Mike Rogers of Granite Grok, missing the “Meet the Press” debate. Mike’s got it TiVo’d for my later examination, but initial accounts indicate it was far more feisty than the ABC debate. Aaron Goldstein of The American Spectator:

Finally!!! Rick Santorum puts it point blank to Romney. If your record in Massachusetts was so great why didn’t you run for re-election? Why did you bail out? Santorum went to say that while Romney bailed, he was running on conservative principles and running in a state bluer than Massachusetts.

Goldstein also notes that Romney and Santorum were equally competent in handling the (evidently obligatory) gay “gotcha” question on NBC this morning. What explains the media’s obsession with gays? And why, to repeat a persistent question, are Republicans letting the Left moderate their debates? Does anyone remember the 2008 Democratic debate moderated by Michelle Malkin, Byron York and Michael Barone?

Amy Walter of ABC News offers explanations of why Saturday night’s debate lacked “fireworks,” but none of her explanations mention the incompetence or bias of the moderators.

UPDATE: In celebrating the Sunday-morning Romney-bashing, Philip Klein expresses a gloomy view of the race:

Had this all happened in September, we [might] be looking at a race where Perry had just won Iowa and was well ahead in South Carolina, while Huntsman was nipping at Romney in New Hampshire. But this isn’t September.
Instead, over the past several months, rivals hardly laid a glove on Romney. Perry had one disastrous debate performance after another and dropped like a rock in the polls. After a succession of candidates rose and fell, eventually Rick Santorum emerged as the leading conservative alternative to Romney. And Huntsman, boring and obnoxious in debates, never took off in New Hampshire. So what we’re left with is a situation in which Romney is so far ahead in his quest for the GOP nomination, that barring a major catastrophe, he’s unlikely to lose. In football terms, he’s in the prevent defense — able to surrender lots of yardage to his opponents in the middle of the field and still win as long as he doesn’t turnover the ball.

Being optimistic about the GOP requires enormous effort, but I will make the effort to disagree with Klein’s assessment.

It wouldn’t necessarily take a “major catastrophe” to derail Romney. If he gets less than 40% here in New Hampshire, that would reinforce doubts about The Man From Bain. This would be especially true if, despite the conventional wisdom about the Granite State’s putative hostility to social conservatives, Santorum overperforms to finish third or better Tuesday.

The rosy scenario would be that both of these things happen: If we’re sitting here Tuesday night looking at Mitt around 38%, while it’s “too close to call” for second place between Ron Paul and Rick Santorum in the vicinity of 18%, that could engender an important shift in perceptions. Romney would look weak going into South Carolina, and Santorum would continue to signal his momentum as the emerging “Not Mitt” conservative choice.

Oh, and bye-bye, Jon Huntsman, who I doubt will finish better than fifth in New Hampshire, the basket that holds all his eggs.

Santorum made a day-trip to South Carolina to campaign today. A pro-Santorum “super-PAC” is already advertising there.

UPDATE II: Jazz Shaw didn’t enjoy the NBC debate:

The Sunday morning event, hosted by NBC and Facebook, started off as nothing short of a disaster. The lead moderator, David Gregory, spent the opening segment doing nothing but firing off political talking points and trying to get the candidates to snipe at each other. Those of us following on Twitter noted that it was literally fifteen minutes into the debate before the first question on policy was asked, and even then it was only after Ron Paul chided Gregory over the unsubstantial nature of the topics.

When we were walking into the Radisson in Manchester last night, Gregory was leaving and — while I admit this may be my own prejudice talking — the dude seems to exude arrogance. Out on the campaign trail, most Big Name TV News Personalities try very hard not to act like they’re better than the rest of us. For example, Carl Cameron of Fox is very approachable and gregarious, and likewise Michael Barone is always happy to talk politics with anyone. But I can’t seem to remember ever seeing David Gregory just “hanging out” in the press gaggle.


Category: Debates, Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire, MSNBC, New Hampshire

Comments

14 Responses to “Sunday Morning Coming Down in New Hampshire ‘Meet the Depressed’ Debate”

  1. DaveO
    January 8th, 2012 @ 11:55 am

    I’m still curious why the Republicans are having so many debates. Unless the strategy is to get the possible candidate so incredibly vetted he can’t be harmed in the general – which is incredibly naive because the Dems won’t hesitate to make sh*t up.

    Or is this all a massive smoke screen and the nomination goes to Palin, with many Dems out of synch?

  2. ThePaganTemple
    January 8th, 2012 @ 12:27 pm

    Pennsylvania is not bluer than Massachusetts. Santorum was not talking about the state, he was talking about his congressional district which he represented in the House at that time. There was evidently an attempt to gerrymander him out of the House, so he ended up representing a district that was between 70-80 percent Democrat, but he managed to win re-election anyway.

  3. Full Video: GOP New Hampshire Debate | The Lonely Conservative
    January 8th, 2012 @ 12:31 pm

    […] seven year old has been quite talkative today, so I really couldn’t tell you what happened. I hear it was lively, and that there were some dumb questions and plenty of bias from the moderators.(Video via […]

  4. Datechguy's Blog » Blog Archive » Axis of Fedora update Manchester 8:15 p.m. NRO event » Datechguy's Blog
    January 8th, 2012 @ 12:58 pm

    […] 4: I’ve written nothing about Sunday Morning’s debate but Stacy has, apparently everyone held their fire till the morning. Share this:PrintRedditDiggStumbleUponEmailFacebook opinions powered by SendLove.to […]

  5. Donald Douglas
    January 8th, 2012 @ 1:29 pm

    Don’t forget: ‘One Year Ago Today: Progressives Ruthlessly Exploited Gabrielle Giffords Shooting to Destroy Conservatives’.

  6. Adjoran
    January 8th, 2012 @ 4:23 pm

    That didn’t happen in a vacuum, either.   Santorum was, shall we say, “union friendly” then and in the Senate.

  7. Adjoran
    January 8th, 2012 @ 4:26 pm

    Off topic:  just heard Tony Blankley has died, presumably of stomach cancer.

  8. Sunday Roundup 1/8/12 TEXANS WIN Edition | Katy Pundit
    January 8th, 2012 @ 4:32 pm

    […] HampshireVisit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy ELECTIONSSunday Morning Coming Down in New Hampshire ‘Meet the Depressed’ DebateABC’s Cheap Shot at the Republican DebateWest holds out for Newt as he cleans up in Nevada […]

  9. Bob Belvedere
    January 8th, 2012 @ 4:59 pm

    Good man; honorable man, from what I’ve heard.

  10. Wasserjungen
    January 8th, 2012 @ 8:59 pm

    Dude didn’t you know that Gregory dyed his hair grey? Just so that he would look “serious”. LOL

  11. Wasserjungen
    January 8th, 2012 @ 9:13 pm

    OT. This morning I saw Meghan waddling out of 30 Rock. I thought that she trimmed down? Maybe that’s why she’s in Psycho B**ch mode again.

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