Given Newsmax’s repeated attacks on Mitt Romney — as part of being in the tank for Newt Gingrich — you’d think that when it got Romney alone for an interivew, it would go heavy and hostile.
But Newsmax’s Feb. 10 interview with Romney is pretty tame. Kathleen Walter tosses mostly softballs; some potentially controversial issues are raised, such as Romney’s commitment to conservatism and concerns about negative campaigning, but Walter frames them, as the rest of the questions, in a open-ended, how-do-you-respond format. That allows Romney to give a largely canned answer, and Walter doesn’t probe Romney further, simply moving on to the next question.
So, why is Newsmax being nice to Romney all of a sudden? Is it preparing for the apparent inevitability of Romney being the nominee and the shilling it will eventually do for him in the fall campaign? After all, Newsmax quickly flip-flopped in the 2010 Florida governor’s race, bashing the Republican who ran against its preferred candidate then, when the preferred candidate lost, supported the winner during the general election and ignored all the nasty things it said about him during the primary.