NO MORE CAVING TO THE MEDIA

Late last week, in a conference call with donors, Governor Mitt Romney said what we all know to be the truth:  that Obama's reelection plan was to divide Americans across various lines and dole out government freebies, such as health insurance, amnesty, and birth control. The promise of these "gifts" (or the fear of losing them) would then drive out turnout, specifically among those who did turn out: blacks, students, and Hispanics -- and lo and behold, it worked.

For days now, Romney's been blistered by the media for telling a truth about a political tactic that the media itself declared as smart politics in real-time as Obama practiced it. I guess the lesson is that practicing divisive politics with the use of taxpayer-funded freebies is okay, but pointing it out is racist.

What should worry us, though, is that some of the men who seek to carry our flag into 2016 have jumped aboard this Nonsense Train with both feet. At differing levels of indignation, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio have all publicly criticized Romney for telling this truth.

Speaking only for myself, let me just say that if this is the first step these men are taking towards a 2016 White House bid -- I'm not impressed. Attacking a man for telling what we all know is the truth, is political cowardice. Tactically, though, it's just dumb, and dumb will not win the White House in 2016.

What no one is blaming the loss on, however, is Romney's refusal to cave to the media when they came after him over tax returns, his comments on Libya, all those phony fact-checks, or even to distance himself from Donald Trump. Through it all, Romney stood strong, looked strong, and benefited by not demoralizing his supporters or encouraging the media through weakness to ratchet up this nonsense. Standing up to the media was something Romney did right.

If anything, in 2016, we're going to need our standard-bearers to be even more aggressive against the media, especially when it comes to not repeating  a number of mistakes that were made in 2012.

We're also going to need a 2016 nominee with the sand to ensure we get better debate moderators and overall conditions during the presidential debates. 

We're now in this process of soul-searching and wound-licking  and self-correction -- and I'm all for that. But anyone on our side who thinks the media can be appeased by jumping on whatever anti-Republican Narrative Bandwagon they've crafted this time, will never be president. Because it's a trap. And if you show weakness, those traps never stop coming.

Caving to the media on any issue, but especially to beat up one of our own for no reason, is a massive over-correction, and a fatal one.

We're looking for  strong leaders and winners in 2016, not wimps.