Jacksonville, FL – January 26th, 2012 –  Tonight, ALL the Republican candidates lost the 2nd of Florida’s Republican Debates. 

The final tally from the mainstream media will most likely show that Mitt Romney was the clear victor in the battle of words in this 2nd Florida Debate held on the University of North Florida campus.  They will most likely state that Rick Santorum was fiery, passionate and eleqount (they will say so with a measure of surprise).  Finally the mainstream media will say that it was an abysmal night for Newt Gingrich, and they will completely fail to even notice that Ron Paul was on the stage except as comic relief.

What will not be seen is the evil snickers and hand rubbing going on in the production rooms of mainstream media nationwide, as the two top Republican contenders allowed themselves to be lead by the moderator into tearing each other to shreds.  Sadly Newt and Mitt fell for it… hook, line, and sinker.

Liberal bias in the majority of the mainstream media is well documented and has been well-covered in a number of books, such as Bernard Goldberg’s “A Slobbering Love Affair” , Ann Coulter’s “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America“, Michelle Malkin’s “Culture of Corruption“, and Dick Morris’ “Catastrophe“.  (All of these are exceptional books and are true eye openers).  What is not being recognized though, is the more subtle efforts to lead Republicans and Conservatives into destroying each other.

Tonight’s debate was a prime example.  Gingrich and Romney, (both of whom I have profound respect for their experience and success) allowed themselves to fall for a rookie mistake.  They let the moderator, Wolf Blitzer, control the course of the debate, and both Romney and Gingrich allowed their egos to get in the way of the goal for ALL Republicans, a Republican President in the next election. 

Instead of  running into the deadfall set up by the media, both Gingrich and Romney had the opportunity to take a higher, nobler road.  Gingrich could have taken that road by apologizing for his immigration attack ad on Romney by saying “You know, that ad was probably not in the best of taste, I apologize, Mitt.” then holding out his hand in friendship.  Romney instead of saying “I doubt that’s my ad” in reference to his ad attacking Gingrich, could have said “You know, I know that things have been getting intense the farther along in this Primary”. Both Romney and Gingrich would have shown themselves to be the bigger man, and it would have been the “Presidential” thing to do.

Sadly, even when Former Senator Rick Santorum pointed out after a Romney vs. Gingrich interchange on  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac…

“The bigger issue here is, these two gentlemen, who are out distracting from the most important issues we have been playing petty personal politics, can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress and used the skills that he developed as a member of Congress to go out and advise companies — and that’s not the worst thing in the world — and that Mitt Romney is a wealthy guy because worked hard and he’s going out and working hard? And you guys should that alone and focus on the issues.” 

… the friendly fire still continued between Romney and Gingrich – fueled by questions from the moderator, Wolf Blitzer.  Santorum was right on target with his assessment, and it should have set off alarm bells for the other two, but they continued to make thrills go up the collective legs of the Mainstream media.

All the Republican Presidential candidates are experienced leaders, and have had measures of success, but the Mainstream media has a liberal bent.  The Mainstream Media is NOT looking to put up the strongest, best Republican up against Obama.  They want the eventual Republican candidate, whomever that may be, to be a wounded, tired candidate, so that it is less of a fight for Obama.

To all the Republican Presidential candidates: Be “Presidential“!  Let your words and interchanges match the traditional respect of the office you aspire to!  Americans WANT a leader who will be willing to sacrifice his ego to bring the country back on track.  Americans have had enough of the arrogance and eliteism of many politicians and public figures.  Stop falling for the traps and barbs of the Mainstream media!  The four candidates need to get together in a private meeting and be heroic by agreeing to only focus on the issues. 

The mainstream media will continue to attempt to play ‘gotcha’ journalism.  They will continue to cackle gleefuly when a Republican trips up, and plot questions to ensnare the candidates and distract from the issues.  The Republican candidates, especially the frontrunners, Romney and Gingrich have to keep their eyes on the goal, rather than on petty squabbles.

In the war of words, Romney won the debate tonight, but in the battle for the votes and hearts of  Republican and Conservative voters nationwide the Mainstream media scored a significant blow.  That blow from the mainstream media does not have to be fatal if the Republican Candidates can focus on the issues, and put ego aside. 

Kudos to Rick Santorum for seeing the trap, now it’s up to all of the GOP Primary candidates to avoid that trap. 

We’ll all be watching to see what happens!