Days of Gingrich–fluffing by Newsmax before the Republican presidential primary in Newsmax’s home state of Florida (and even more before the Iowa primary) got Gingrich a 15-point loss. This seems to have motivated Newsmax not to put all its eggs in one presidential basket.
Oh, sure, there are the post-election articles designed to prop up Gingrich in the wake of the loss, such as quoting “political guru” Larry Sabato as claiming that Florida was not a “game-ender” for Gingrich’s presidential hopes. There was also the requisite Romney-bashing, such as pointing out that Romney’s votes “cost more than three times that of his nearest rival, Newt Gingrich.”
But there was also an article coming to Romney’s defense. A Feb. 1 article declared that “Sources in the mainstream media were quick to jump on Mitt Romney for saying he doesn’t care about the very poor — without placing the remark in context.” But the article did not name any actual “sources in the mainstream” who were taking Romney’s words out of the context — only that it is likely to be taken out of context by Romney’s critics.
Also, Romney-fluffer extraordinaire Ronald Kessler was let out of his cage to fluff away once more. In a column posted the morning after Romney’s Florida win, Kessler proclaimed that there is “no better example” of Romney serving as a “turnaround artist” than when he “turned a failure into a success with the 2002 Winter Olympics” by turning “budget deficit of $379 million” to “a surplus of $56 million.”
Unmentioned by Kessler: That surplus was due in no small part to federal subsidies. The Salt Lake City Olympics received $342 million in federal money, more than was given to the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta.