Newt vs Mitt ROUND N! FIGHT!

 I will admit, I missed this Thursday's debate.  Part of the reason is it is the 19th debate.  The other part of the reason is that the last few days I have been on a coding spree the likes of which I have not seen in a couple years.  It is amazing what you can do when you actually care about a project.  But, I digress, as this post has nothing to do with my awesome programming abilities, well, it has a bit to do with it.  Typically when I am coding I am doing one of two things simultaneously, the first, and most frequent is jamming to my music collection.  Most of it is Japanese songs from anime but there are also some non-anime songs in there like High and Mighty Color and Hyde.  The other simultaneous activity is how I get a lot of my news, by leaving the TV on MSNBC, CNN or if I'm in the right mood for bullshit, Fox News.  I do this with other activities too, typically gaming and sometimes just chatting online.  It is a great way to absorb the news without having to listen to every little story.  If I hear something that interests me I will pause what I am doing and pay closer attention to the news and that is exactly what was going on Thursday night.  On the TV was Lawrence O'Donnell an abashed liberal, which is not a bad thing, but I do find him someone condescending and it is pretty clear he has an agenda.  I may agree with that agenda in a lot of places, but I don't really like to see that in my pundits and news anchors.  As his show was coming on, the 19th Republican debate was ending on another network and MSNBC was going to pickup right there with their coverage of the debate.  Sometimes it is better to see the debate in a few clips like you find on these shows because it takes away all the fluff and repetitive statements you have heard a thousand times and leaves you with the good and bad moments.  So I will get right into it, here is the clip that this post centers on:

Here is the timeline of what is going through my brain as I watch this.

0:00 -  Halfway paying attention while programming

0:10 - The other half listening to the MSNBC is rolling its eyes as Gingrich plays up the crowd.

0:26 - I swap full attention to MSNBC when Gingrich starts his sob story and moves to attacking Romney on something he clearly had been saving for a juicy moment.

0:36 - I say out loud "Ohhh shit!"  It wasn't really loud, I was just caught by surprise, the debate is being held in Florida, the week before Florida votes.  Florida has something like 1 out of every 2 homes being worth less than what people owe.  It was one of the hardest hit when the housing bubble burst.  Republicans, almost uniformly, blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the bubble as opposed to pretty much everyone else who blames the idiots passing the mortgages around like they're playing hot potato.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are like curse words in this auditorium.  This was a huge bomb dropped by Gingrich.

0:55 - By this point I've repeated "Ohhh shit!" many times.  This type of attack is what Gingrich lives on.  He framed it perfectly as a death knell for Romney's campaign in Florida.

1:05 - The moment has kind of passed, Romney is moving into the intellectual debunking that he needs to do to at least save some face.  What he says, while mostly true, is entirely intellectual and really does nothing to save him in the eyes of the crowd, even if he is right.  Boredom creeps back in.

1:30 - My mind snaps back to full speed, taking in every moment, something serious is coming.

1:35 - "OHHHHHH SHIIITTT! OHHHH SHIIITT!" Romney drops a freaking 100 ton hammer on Gingrich who now looks like a deer caught in the headlights.

1:47 - Still deep in the moment, realizing how huge of a screw up this is for Gingrich, I am drinking in every detail every second.  Then I dive even deeper when Romney says HE HAS MORE!

1:58 - By this point there is nothing that could take my attention away from the TV, short of having myself enter a state of spontaneously combustion.   Romney, strutting his stuff, turns everything Newt said about him around and slants it towards the audience.  He doesn't invest in the government, he LOANS the government money in the form of bonds.

2:10  -  As Romney shifts gears AGAIN and brings up more on Gingrich, I am thinking "OHH SHIT MAN THIS JUST WON'T END!"

2:35 - Clip over,  I'm just staring at the TV wishing it was on my DVR so I could rewind it, but alas that was on another tv.

As soon as the clip ends I am off and running on a mad search of YouTube for just the right clip of this moment so I can show it to all my political junky friends and for later posting here.  It takes me about 10-15 minutes to find it.  I must have watched it 20 times between then and now and it never gets old.  Later on as I knew what to expect, I was able to watch the reactions of the two candidates and you can tell what is going through their minds at each moment.



Now here is a timeline of what is going through their minds:

0:00 - 0:57 Gingrich is in his typical smug, egotistical mode, thinking it is about time to throw another one of his patented bombs and watch the fallout.  You can just picture a tiny version of him inside his head sitting in a high backed chair doing the Mr. Burns "Excellent"

0:17 - 0:27 Romney is calmly taking in what Gingrich is saying, formulating a response

0:32 - 0:47 Romney begins to see where it is going and is setting it up in his head and if you look closely you can see a him form a very faint smile

 0:49 - 0:57 It becomes more and more obvious that Romney is having trouble containing his glee and says something I don't think I've ever heard at a debate before, "This is Fun."

1:03 - 1:26 Romney hides his glee with a good calm argument re-characterizing what he has done

1:25 - 1:32 Gingrich, still thinking he's hurt Romney is formulating a response and then WAM he immediately shifts to a "HUH!?" face, clearly being blindsided.

1:32 - 1:39 - Gingrich realizes he screwed up, big time. Romney is thinking, "WHAT NOW!?"

1:39 - 1:47 - Gingrich is frozen unable to respond as the crowd turns against him to the point where he nods his head acknowledging what a blow it was.  Gingrich never acknowledges anyone as his better.  Romney is clearly reveling in Gingrich's misery, lets the audience pour it on.

1:48 - 1:50 - Romney is thinking "I HAVEN'T BEGUN BITCH!"

1:50 - 2:36 - Romney spends the rest of the time imagining himself standing above Gingrich, with Gingrich's face in the mud, Romney pressing down his foot on Gingrich's head while simultaneously peeing on him.

1:50 - 2:10 - Gingrich is thinking "Oh God, someone save me" you can see him almost crying

2:10 - 2:36 - Gingrich is thinking "Oh great, now he's tied my lobbying into it, at least I can defend that a bit to take some of the heat off"



I hope everyone who sees this clip enjoys it at least half as much as I did.