I began Thursday's radio show by playing the clip of Newt Gingrich telling ABC's Jake Tapper that he would be the GOP nominee --not once but five times in various ways in less than 60 seconds.
I then asked for callers --first time callers only-- and their reactions. In an eleven minute segment I fit in 20 callers, 17 of whom applauded the former Speaker's bravado, three of whom dissented. Radio folks know this is more than a little astonishing (hat tip to call screener Nick who worked at a dizzying pace) and is the sort of reaction that only is triggered by something connecting with the audience on a very emotional level. My producer Duane has thought the statement off-putting. My network's content guru, Lee Habeeb, who was with me in the studio at Regent University where we were visiting, thought it was brilliant. The instant, unfiltered reaction of first-time callers --not the practiced, planted callers of Team Obama's negative machine-- favored the confidence of Newt, just as his recent rise in the polls has been largely fueled by his performances in the debates in which he has routinely attacked not Mitt Romney but the president and especially the media, which the center-right has gone from merely disliking to loathing in recent years because of the Manhattan-Beltway media elite's collective swoon for the president in 2008 and since.
The MSM narrative about these events is as wrong as usual when it comes to deciphering the thinking of conservatives. GOP primary voters aren't looking for an anti-Romney. They are looking for the nominee who will take it to Obama and his allies in the media every single day. Governor Romney's solid base of support has been built on the expectation that he will do so even though he has been careful in his roll out. Romney's debate performances have routinely focused on and blasted the president, and this accounts for his early lead in New Hampshire and strong national showing in head-to-head match-ups with the president.
But it has been a restrained approach, a foreshadowing of the summer and fall game plan, one designed not to exhaust the energy and commitment of the anti-Obama activists.