Usually, televised presidential debates are things to be avoided — unless you crave zingers. Last night’s GOP debate in North Charleston featured just such a zinger, as Newt Gingrich applied the lash to CNN media personality John King:
King’s question even had the assembled press corps gasping. What is is with CNN news readers and vicious questions out of the blue? During the audience warm-ups before the debate, King came out on stage to chat, maybe even have a few laughs and giggles. It went poorly. King slinked off the stage, marking his notes as he went. Perhaps that was when he decided to go full Bernie Shaw.
After the rollicking start, the debate settled into a familiar pattern. Mitt had flashes of coherence, but a number of awkward stumbles. Newt was glib and confident, but occasionally hectoring. Santorum ranged between the heart-felt and the condescending. Ron Paul, at least to judge from the reaction in the press room, was comic relief…and even, sometimes, refreshing.
Who won? Partisans will claim their man did, of course. What got the reporters’ keyboards clacking the loudest were the portions of the debate relating to Mitt’s tax returns and the exchange on abortion. But behind the scenes, in what CNN dubbed “The Spin Room,” was a telling scene of who might win where it matters most: at the ballot box.
Amidst the swarm of reporters and camera crews (and RedState’s Erick Erickson standing on a platform in the middle of it all as if he were a prize bull), were the campaign surrogates. Gingrich had a healthy contingent on hand — even former New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith, who earlier in the day looked as if he’d just rolled off the Metallica tour bus, was there and in fine form. Ron Paul had his campaign staffers, Romney had a handful of bland handlers, and Santorum had…no one. His section of the room was empty. He’s the candidate on the bubble.
Gingrich believes he can win. He’s put the people and the money into the effort and his campaign here seems bigger, and more cohesive, than that of his rivals. Earlier in the day, former Rep. Bob Livingston told me that Newt would either win or come in a strong second. That’s a bit of an expectation game, but the implication from this morning and after the debate was clear: if Newt doesn’t win, or come very close to it, he may be cooked.
On the bus ride over to the debate, I sat next to two Gingrich staffers who forgot a key political lesson: never talk shop in a public place. They regaled one another with the ad buys they had made on the Drudge report…the powerful blog posts they were writing, how a TV ad with a bishop that was a sure-fire winner had to be scrapped when the clergyman suddenly backed out. They commiserated over their struggles trying to convince social conservatives to drop their bickering and past animosities with one another and get behind Newt.
And, considering the breaking news yesterday, one of them said Mrs. Gingrich almost caught him surfing Drudge on his phone. She wouldn’t have approved.
Overall, seeing the debate from the press room was a bit of a cultural experience. Most of the reporters around me were tuned into Twitter, either following what others were saying or adding their own tweets to the mix. The Politico team in front of me looked too young to be up so late. They were also quite put-out that Ron Paul hadn’t made room for the press on his flying tour of the state today. Steve Hayes from the Weekly Standard, sitting next to me, spoke rarely, and then only in hushed whispers as he tried to get his column filed. Times’ Joe Klein is smaller, older and creepier in person.
And Peter Schiff, the investor, one-time Connecticut Senate candidate and current talk show host who was supposed to be sitting on my left? He made an appearance…but only after the doors had closed and he couldn’t get into the room. I passed him my way out, with a very pretty woman hanging on his shoulder. His night was only just beginning.
