All eyes were on Florida last night as the four remaining GOP candidates for president gathered at the University of South Florida for the first of two debates in advance of the January 31 Florida primary. In the wake of his stunning and decisive win in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich was the central focus of the debate, and from the outset he was bombarded by Mitt Romney (and to a lesser extent Ron Paul) about a range of issues from his economic plan to his time at Freddie Mac. Gingrich seemed noticeably rattled by the attacks, even though he had to know they were coming. At one point, Romney’s criticism of Newt’s time at Freddie left him speechless for a couple of seconds.
A notable difference between this debate at the South Carolina ones were the absence of a participating audience. NBC’s Brian Williams, last night’s moderator, insisted that the crowd hold all outbursts and applause until breaks, and for the most part they obliged. Gingrich just didn’t seem the same without a crowd to feed off of, and his debate performance reflected that. Now this morning, the New York Times is reporting that Gingrich is threatening to pull out of any future debates without a participating audience.
“I wish in retrospect I’d protested when Brian Williams took them out of it because I think it’s wrong,” Mr. Gingrich said. “And I think he took them out of it because the media is terrified that the audience is going to side with the candidates against the media, which is what they’ve done in every debate.”
Gingrich has enjoyed considerable success bashing the media during the past week, but it will be interesting to see if he can make hay with such spin. And how will CNN, hosts of the next debate on January 26, react? Time will tell, but given Gingrich’s flat performance last night, it’s definitely something to keep an eye on.
