Salon: The power of conservative victimhood
Friday, Jan 20, 2012 4:08 AM UTC
It took Newt about five minutes to steal the show at the final pre-South Carolina debate
By Steve Kornacki
If Newt Gingrich does pull off a victory in South Carolina on Saturday, hell owe it to the skill with which he has tapped into the rights persecution complex this past week and to some helpful debate moderators.
The final pre-South Carolina debate Thursday night ran for two hours and featured several sharp attacks on Gingrich. Mitt Romney, for instance, ridiculed Gingrichs frequent claims that he worked closely with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, noting that Reagans published diary offered just one dismissive mention of the Georgian. Rick Santorum, meanwhile, depicted Gingrich as an erratic and unreliable leader. Grandiosity, he declared, has never been a problem with Newt Gingrich. (In a response that well probably see a few more times on cable news shows Friday, Gingrich admitted that I think grandiose thoughts.)
But it seems doubtful any of this will really matter for much , because Gingrich may very well have won the debate before it was five minutes old.
The question hanging in the air when the candidates took the stage was whether and how the interview that Gingrichs second wife, Marianne, just gave to ABC News would be addressed. The interview had hijacked the Thursdays political conversation, with ABC teasing salacious details like Marianne Gingrich repeating on-camera for the first time her claim that Newt had asked her for an open marriage after revealing his affair with Callista throughout the day and promising the run the full version on Nightline after the debate. Would moderator John King bring it up? Would one of Gingrichs rivals? Or an audience member? Or maybe the former speaker himself? Or maybe somehow it wouldnt come up at all.
Read the entire piece at Salon.com
Sarah Ibarruri
(21,043 posts)I can't help thinking just deliriously happy some poor Repuke assholes in South Carolina must be to be watching their hero, Newt, oinking right there in SC!
They watch from their Confederate flag-covered sofas (shotgun at their side), joyfully wanking off under their KKK hoods and gowns, smiling blissfully toothless Deliverance smirks, and feeling oh so very successful!
lol
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)are not being rational because they want a flame throwing at Obama because they hate him so much. I hope raltional republicans find a way to push Fruity Newty out. He is damaging their brand. It is scary.
JustAnotherGen
(31,681 posts)Republican in an of itself is a 'damaged brand'! But I do see your point. Feel the same way about Ron Paul.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)allow him to get their vote. Don't you think.
JustAnotherGen
(31,681 posts)But so many on that side are incable of thinking at all . . .
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)Sarah Ibarruri
(21,043 posts)City Lights
(25,171 posts)And I'm pulling for anyone but Romney in SC. I want their primary drags on and on and on, damaging their brand beyond repair.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)But yet your right it would be great to see the freak show continue.
City Lights
(25,171 posts)I think most of the voting public will see him as too toxic to elect. At least that's how I hope they'll see him. :fingerscrossed:
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)Charming
(2 posts)While there are more than enough of the gun toten' flag waving red necks in battered pickups to go around in SC , these days they mostly wear polo shirts and dockers drive big SUVs and migrated here from NY, NJ and CT with a heavy dose of OH.