By now, most of you already know the story. In the heat of their fierce Florida death match, the Romney campaign released a campaign ad hammering Newt Gingrich. The ad is made up almost entirely of a clip from a 1997 “Nightly News” report when Tom Brokaw was still the network’s anchor:
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Byron York, in my opinion, has done the definitive analysis looking into what really happened with respect to the Speaker’s ethics case, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Romney ad is brilliant in its simplicity and effectiveness. This morning on the “Today Show,” Romney himself explained why:
“I think the reason it was so effective as an ad was that this was not something that Speaker Gingrich could say had been distorted or that Romney was telling things that were not accurate,” Romney said.
“People heard the news, they didn’t hear it filtered, it was just straight on, no heavy music that suggested some kind of sinister background. Instead, (it is) Tom Brokaw, a very credible and respected journalist, reporting the news and I think it was pretty devastating and pointed out that what Speaker Gingrich has been trying to hide is not out in the open.”
Let’s just hope that, should Romney become our nominee, he’s just as willing to salt the earth behind him when it comes to Barack Obama. Romney’s ruthless instincts are the exact right ones when it comes to winning the nomination, but one problem with our side is that we’re usually willing to do whatever it takes to destroy our own, but for fear of the what the corrupt MSM might say, we ease off the Democrats — and lose. Remember McCain’s unwillingness to bring up the twenty years Obama spent in that creepy, racially divisive church? That’s what I mean.
This is especially frustrating because the Democrats always come at us with both barrels blazing. Of course, they never have to worry about the MSM piling on for doing so. We, however, do.
The bigger question, though, is how willing the Romney camp will be to manipulate and fight with the MSM in the general election. What Romney’s done with this NBC commercial has been a brilliant strategy from the beginning. My guess is that, based on NBC’s history, the Romney people knew the ad would generate a legal complaint, so they released the ad too close to the weekend knowing it would take a couple of days before any serious legal action could take place. They also knew the ad would generate a ton of free media, thanks to the expected controversy with NBC (which it did). And finally, what is Mitt Romney doing right now in response to Brokaw’s demands? He’s wrist-flicking them away, as he did this morning on the “Today Show”:
Mitt Romney’s team plans to meet with NBC to address the network’s request his campaign pull an ad attacking Newt Gingrich that uses NBC Nightly News footage from 1997.
“We will sit down with the lawyers and talk to the folks at NBC and make a decision on that front,” Romney told Matt Lauer on TODAY from Jacksonville, Fla., where he is campaigning in advance of Tuesday’s primary.
“We’ll certainly consider that very carefully; obviously, this was not something taken from hidden files, this was on the evening news, so it should hardly come as a revealing piece for people who watch it.”
“We’ll meet.”
“We’ll sit down.”
“We’ll consider.”
Sure they will, just as soon as Florida votes.
Heh, heh, heh.
After a Machiavellian use of them, the Romney camp is now completely blowing off NBC. As someone who despises NBC, I’m enjoying the hell out of this, and I doubt I’m the only one.
I know Newt’s supporters are upset over the ad, but I’m looking at the instincts from the guy more likely than not to be our nominee. In a passive-aggressive but very effective way, Romney is using the MSM to his own advantage. He’s also been two or three moves ahead of NBC since the whole affair began.
Again, our side has a tendency to be all kinds of ruthless against our own side and then cower in front of Democrat opponents. Also, to be fair, NBC and Brokaw would probably be putting up a much more costly stink if their precious Obama was the one getting hammered in that ad instead of Newt, a guy we all know they hate. But effectively handling the corrupt MSM is the road to the White House for our nominee, and as I’ve done with Gingrich, I’m just pointing out something that looks promising from the other guy.
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