WEBCommentary Contributor
Author: Michael J. Gaynor
January 17, 2008

GOP Contest Truth: Mitt's Winning

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Mitt Romney has been winning, but the media has refused to admit it and helped his less Reaganesque rivals, John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani.
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The truth about the Republican presidential race is that media bias is again a disgrace.

Mitt Romney has been winning, but the media has refused to admit it and helped his less Reaganesque rivals, John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani.

Just as the media generally did acknowledge the Duke case as a Democrat scandal and a political correctness scandal and long reported what it wanted to report instead of the pesky facts.

The media seemed to be hoping that Mitt would be forced out of the race (like Mitt's National Review endorsement, a strong sign that he should be nominated!).

Nevertheless, Mitt's been the first choice of a large plurality of those who voted in Republican primaries and caucuses to date and has won the lion's share of the delegates.

Of the 92 Republican delegates chosen so far, 42 support Mitt. Together, John McCain and Mike Huckabee have 40 (21 for the Huck, 19 for McCain).

The media is against racial or gender bias in the Democrat presidential race, of course, but, when it comes to anti-Mormon bias, thatserves the media. Thus, MSNBC's Chris Matthews provided a platform for McCain's 95-year oldmother to Mormon bash and then bashed a Mitt supporter for not giving her a pass.

The Huck's win in Iowa was an anamoly, but it was treated as a sign that Mitt's campaign was nearly done and the Huck would have a place on the Republican ticket in 2008.

The media virtually ignored Mitt's win in Wyoming, even though it gave him the lead in delegates (a lead he has increased) and Mitt won more delegates in Wyoming (eight) than McCain later won in New Hampshire (seven).

Mitt's big win in the first western state (Wyoming) soon after Iowa was treated as insignificant, even though it put him in the delegate lead and his closest rivals, John McCain and Mike Huckabee, together did not win a single delegate.

Why?

It did not fit the media's agenda.

The truth is that Mitt won two of the first four states and came in second in the other two.

That's much better than any of his rivals.

Mitt's been competing everywhere and competitive everywhere.

None of his Republican rivals also has been.

McCain, "the President of New Hampshire," won New Hampshire by 18 points against President Bush in 2006. In 2008, he won the Republican primary by 5 points, even though a plurality of Republicans preferred Mitt.

NOT impressive. A final salute to an old prisoner-of-war whose days as a viable presidential candidate passed long ago.

Thus, in Michigan, when McCain also had won in 2008, McCain lost to Mitt by 9 points and an even bigger margin among Republicans.

McCain should quit, not Mitt.

Michigan will be a key state in the 2008 presidential election and Mitt stands the best chance to turn that traditionally blue state red on Election Day 2008.

The pander-bear Huck won Iowa, winning 17 delegates to Mitt's 12 by running as a Christian leader during the Christmas season in a state where 60% of the Republicans who caucused are fellow Evangelical Christians.

NOT a harbinger of things to come.

In Wyoming and Michigan, however, the Huck did not win a single delegate! (In New Hampshire, he won ONE delegate.)

The media has been making much of the Huck, but he's been a one-state wonder and doesn't deserve all the thunder. As Ann Coulter wrote, "Liberals take a perverse pleasure in touting Huckabee because they know he will give them everything they want — big government and a Christian they can roll."

Rudy Giuliani has been soundly rejected in Iowa, Wyoming, New Hampshire and Michigan. He has not won in a single delegate in any of those states. (Duncan Hunter did better, winning one in Wyoming.)

Fred Thompson came in third in Iowa, ahead of McCain, winning three delegates, and second in Wyoming, winning three more. But he was shut out in New Hampshire and Michigan.

Ron Paul has not won even one delegate in Wyoming, or New Hampshire, or Michigan, and but 2 in Iowa.

Mitt is on his way to the Republican presidential nomination and, hopefully, the White House.

But the media will be hindering, not helping.

On January 19, 2009, Republican delegates will be chosen in Nevada and South Carolina.

Mitt's ahead in Nevada, so Nevada's being downplayed.

Mitt was running third in South Carolina before the Michigan primary, with McCain and the Huck ahead of him.

Nevada will choose 34 delegates in a closed caucus, compared to 24 delegates to be chosen in an open primary in South Carolina.

Count on the media continuing to focus on South Carolina, in the hope that either McCain or the Huck, if not both, can best him there.

As usual, the media is unfair.

Michael J. Gaynor

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