Gingrich Camp Complains that Romney ‘Packed’ the Debate Hall
Members of Newt Gingrich’s campaign accused Mitt Romney’s campaign of packing the audience for the Republican presidential candidate debate on Thursday night in Jacksonville, Fla., with its own supporters to ensure that the dynamics would be favorable to Romney.
“They definitely packed the room,” Kevin Kellems, one of Gingrich’s senior advisers, told The Huffington Post early Friday morning. “The problem for them is their candidate, at several junctures, couldn’t remember what he had said before on an issue or what the fundamental truth is on a given topic. TV viewers tend to notice and remember things like that.”
A more junior member of the Gingrich campaign said in an email that it was “obvious” that the Romney campaign had worked to make sure the audience was overly favorable toward the former Massachusetts governor.
I don’t know whether Romney’s team did this or not, nor do I care one way or the other. It was evident in several early debates that Ron Paul’s folks had packed the hall, or at least that seemed to be the case judging by the levels of applause he received for saying things that tend not to fly in the GOP. As campaign tactics go, packing the hall is mild stuff. Watching the debate on TV, the loudest applause actually went to Santorum when he lashed out at both Gingrich and Romney for launching petty attacks at each other. Ron Paul’s comedy act got several strong responses. Seriously, he should think about becoming a correspondent on The Daily Show once the primary is overwith. I hate most of his policies but he has great comedic timing.
Gingrich’s team is starting to look like a passel of whiners, complaining about whether another candidate packed the room or not. They should focus more on prepping their man better for debates. Gingrich walked into a buzzsaw when he attacked Romney for having investments in Freddie and Fannie, when Gingrich has similar investments of his own. The whole question is irrelevant given the fact that the investments are mutual funds and in Romney’s case they’re part of a blind trust, but if you’re going to launch an attack it’s best to know if you have a vulnerability in the same area.
Newt Gingrich in particular should have learned that from his own experiences with Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
The “Commie/Socialist/Left” want Romney in a bad, bad way.
I wouldn’t doubt that Romney had NOTHING to do with packing the debate hall and I would NOT doubt that there were ACORN plants injected into those cheering sections.
were allocated to the Republican Party – can you say establishment? You think they even know people that really make up their base?
You think they even know people that really make up their base?
No.
Bryan has switched his puppy dog allegiance from Perry to Romney.
You would think he could mask it better, since from time to time (not this time) he seems to try.
Packed hall with Romney supporters
Yadda yadda yadda yah Ron Paul
Won’t applaud all Newt’s ripsnorters
Yadda yadda yadda yah Ron Paul
Though the nation is in peril
Yadda yah yadda yadda yah Ron Paul
We’ll cling to this format sterile
Yadda yadda yadda yah Ron Paul
Where is the story about the whining Romney camp”? They have whined and complained about everything Newt has said about them. Maybe if the Romney team hadn’t decided to go so negative towards Newt in Iowa things might be a little nicer for old Mitt. No matter the final winner they will be a lot stronger than they would have without all of the positional and personal attacks. I have read the account of Newt’s trouble in the House and Romney should be ashamed of what he is saying. What the Dems did to Newt is exactly what they did to Sarah Palin while she was the governor of Alaska and Romney is jumping on the dishonest band wagon. But for some reason what Newt is saying about Bain and how Mitt should explain it to us is soooo evil. And when Romney got the chance to explain it he blew the explanation by lying about the number of jobs “He” created but not the number of jobs he lost. Mitt is like a computer program, he does great as long as he doesn’t run into a glitch or have to reboot. His message is getting real old and he repeats himself at every debate. He is getting only the votes he has bought and the timid people’s vote.
So what?!
Politics ain’t bean bag.
I think what they’re really complaining about is that Romney’s side came up with that tactic *first*.
Newt Gingrich in particular should have learned that from his own experiences with Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
Actually, this is more like when Gingrich idiotically made it seem like he had gone up against Clinton in the 1995 budget showdown because Clinton wouldn’t let him fly in the front of Air Force One when they made a joint trip to New Hampshire.
That’s that problem with “Angry Newt” who attacks debate moderators (correctly) for their biased questions — it’s only a small step from that to “Petulant Newt” who attacks his opponents over seemingly trivial matters, and thereby forces his supporters to get outrageously outraged about minor kerfuffles that take the focus away from the main issues and make him look small and petty.
“Gingrich’s team is starting to look like a passel of whiners”, …to whom? both your quotes from the aide and the Huffing & Pissing Post say, “packed the room”. Where does it say, “Those stinking rotten bastards” packed the rooms? When Greta van Sustren asked Newt what about this, (Right Scoop video) Newt said, ‘Yes, that’s fine. Jacksonville is his state headquarters’. If you are going to infer intentions from words, where the beef?