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Gingrich handled the debate's leadoff question about his second ex-wife's interview masterfully. He turned it into a broad attack on the methods, ownership, and supposed bias of the press.
The audience went wild in support, the other candidates joined in, and the moderator looked like a deer in the headlights. John King had opened a line of questioning he wasn't ready to continue - he never made the observations about a long history of infidelity or about hypocrisy during the Clinton Presidency. If Gingrich had hired King to play the convenient shill, King would have earned a bonus.
And yet...
Running against the press has a long, long history in American politics. (I was only watching since the Agnew years and the "nattering nabobs of negativism.") It's a sugar high - it wins the candidate momentary sympathy and support, but doesn't change anyone's opinion of the candidate's competence and credibility. The politician who uses this tactic isn't mourned when s/he collapses (see Agnew, Joe McCarthy, even Sarah Palin).
So Gingrich will get a short bump here - probably enough to win the South Carolina primary and end the Romney Inevitability. But he won't get even a month's worth of poll improvement.
"Be careful what you wish for" is always good advice. But Mitt losing a primary to this particular candidate, amped up on short-term anti-press steroids, is a Good Thing for Democrats.
