Sunday, January 22, 2012

Let's face it, Gingrich loves the "destructive, vicious, negative" news media. He knows how to play the game. And the press loves him for it.


Gingrich loves the press. In some respects we are, as John McCain famously noted, his "base". - Toby Harnden, Daily Mail’s US Editor

...As Politico's Ginger Gibson reports, Gingrich is very pally with the reporters who travel with him, calling on them by name and praising their good humour. He wished NBC's Alex Moe a happy birthday at a press conference. That evening, he appeared at her birthday dinner with a glass of wine in his hand.

By contrast, Romney very rarely engages with reporters - which makes a lot of sense in terms of message discipline but can lead to frustration within the media and accusations of being a programmed "Romneybot". Strangely enough, in this respect he is a little like Barack Obama, who in the 2008 campaign hardly ever yukked it up with reporters in the way Gingrich does....