In every debate so far, Newt Gingrich has made a point to pique the debate moderator, but, yet, today, a woman asked Newt Gingrich what plan he has to tackle the dirty tactics of the biased media. Has he not made it clear he’ll tackle the MSM one personality at a time?

Gingrich’s first sentence in reply is humorous.

“This may surprise some of you,” he says. “I was dead in June and July — as a candidate, not as a person.”

Actually, what would surprise me more is if he had been actually dead and was now alive again. But no matter. The crowd tittered politely at his quip.

But then Gingrich delivers the crux of his answer — and what he said was important and, I think, highly relevant to repositioning himself with the media so as to be treated fairly if he becomes the nominee and has to face a hostile MSM in the general.

“We all complained correctly when the news media failed to investigate Barack Obama,” he said. “We complained when they refused to look at William Ayers. We complained when they didn’t explain what Saul Alinsky was all about, when they didn’t explain what ‘community organizer’ meant. We were right to complain … So now they’re actually doing for us what they wouldn’t do for Barack Obama. Now, they’re doing it partly out of bias … but that’s fine. This is a free society. … You cannot ask the people of the United States to loan you the most powerful governmental job in the world — particularly on a campaign that is promising dramatic change — and not have them vet you carefully and thoroughly. … I will cheerfully answer every question they ask.”

That last sentence is especially important. Newt has proved his positivity toward his fellow candidates — but “cheerful” is not exactly the word I’d use to characterize his clashes with a couple media personalities. If he can manage to be congenial with them from here on out, that would be the biggest triumph of all. The media — like the electorate — will be kinder to those they like than to those by whom they’re merely impressed.