Scene from the spin room
Posted: Thursday, November 29, 2007 9:23 AM by Mark Murray
NBC/NJ’s Erin McPike reports from the post-debate spin room: The way the Romney
campaign put it, Giuliani attacked him personally on the immigration issue. Several representatives said that he got "nasty." Romney counsel Ben Ginsberg also said that he thought the debate had too much of a focus on social issues, and that CNN spent too much time on gay marriage.
Both Ginsberg and communications director Matt Rhoades called Thompson's YouTube video the first "negative attack" ad of the race. Ginsberg said his reaction was "extreme puzzlement."
Spokesman Kevin Madden addressed the Confederate flag question, and said that both South Carolina residents and Romney consider the issue to have been dealt with, and the campaign's understanding is that voters want to hear about kitchen table issues, so that's what they would rather spend their time on.
Moreover, as Huckabee had a live shot with a network, an older reporter -- we don’t know who it was -- was trying to push his way through to ask some questions. A Huckabee campaign aide kept saying, "Easy, easy," but the reporter knocked him over, causing him to fall to the floor.
Huckabee saw this and said, "Did he hit my guy? Get security. Get him out of here." About four security guys came over and tried to get him to leave, but he resisted a bit. He finally was escorted out but was not arrested.
