GOP Strategist: Republican Establishment Fears Down-Ballot Disaster If Newt Wins Nomination

Newt has a few negatives for sure, but this ability to stand up to the lies smear and dirty tricks of the Obama campaign and it's surrogates in the media is going to be vital in what promises to be the meanest and dirtiest campaign in modern history.
Newt also has to bear in mind that the press play chess too. They see he will attack back, so they will try to get him to go too far.

He needs to be careful. He needs to call it ALMOST like it is. He needs to decry the media but not say they are ‘Communist friendly’ or something like that. Even though we know it's true, the masses aren't as partisan and aren't as keyed-in, and the press would ride him every day on that topic alone.

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Absolutely, and he also has to be very careful not wear the issue out early so people are numb with media bashing fatigue come general election time.

The best approach is probably to effectively rebut the media smears and BS point by point on their merits and reserve actually attacking the media for it's bias and outright propaganda for Obama’s re election for the most egregious and damaging examples.

Anything is preferable to the Romney "Obama is a great guy, he's just a misguided and in over his head" approach.

The Media will help Romney get the nomination if they can. After he is nominated, they will turn on him to destroy him in the general election just like they did to McCain. They blindsided McCain so badly he never what hit him.

When George Bush was Governor of Texas, he was the most effective bi- partisan Governor in recent history. He tried to bring his collegial "New Tone" to Washington and it did not work with the hard core Democrats in Congress because Washington is a hard core battle ground for power and the media is a partisan surrogate in helping Democrats spread their propaganda and destroy Republicans

Bush had much of his Presidency ruined and America's reputation in the world tarnished because he refused to engage the Democrats and their surrogates in the media against their smear tactics and fight back against their negative propaganda . He allowed the Democrats/Media to play hard ball and to frame the agenda and shape public opinion with lies and he never fought back.

This seems to be the reality of modern Washington, and if a Republican President wishes to be effective he will have to be very proactive in shaping public opinion and fighting the Democrat/Media Politics of Destruction machine.

Palin is very good at this and so is Newt until he lets these guys get under his skin and over reacts. It will be interesting to see if Newt can muster the discipline and self control to be effective and go the distance.

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