Is Santorum's Media Attack The Last Gasp?

Is Santorum's Media Attack The Last Gasp?

Yesterday, Rick Santorum labeled Mitt Romney “the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama.” Santorum said the statement was with regard to Romneycare; the New York Times, by contrast, portrayed it as a blanket reference to Romney’s supposed inelectability. Santorum then denounced the reporter’s interpretation of the statement, “What speech did you listen to? Stop lying … I said he was the worst Republican to run on the issue of Obamacare. That’s what I was talking about.”

Was Santorum using the media as a foil, the way Newt Gingrich did so successfully? Was Santorum right, that the media was twisting his words? Or was Ryan Williams, a Romney spokesman, correct when he responded, “Every day, Rick Santorum sounds less like a person who is committed to helping conservatives defeat Barack Obama and more like a spoiled child who just wants to take his ball and go home”? Was Santorum’s outburst the last refuge of a campaign doomed to fail?

Santorum’s outburst at the reporter didn’t seem contrived; he appeared on Fox and Friends later and joked, “If you haven’t cursed out a New York Times reporter during the course of a campaign, you’re not really a real Republican is the way I look at it.” Unlike Gingrich, who made denouncing the media a staple of his debates, Santorum eschewed that and targeted other candidates.

Here’s the bottom line: Santorum may have been right about the media twisting his words, but the media does that to every Republican given the chance. It’s part of their war on the right, and any Republican candidate has to know that. That being the case, complaints about media bias are generally more wind than substance.

Was Santorum’s outburst the last punch of a fighter down and out? Certainly it looks that way; anger doesn’t look presidential.  It’s no wonder that many conservatives, tired of the internecine warfare, are slowly turning their eyes toward the real target of their ire: President Obama. 

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