Apparently, the newest way to become a media star is to cuss out a presidential candidate.
At least that’s what Iowa voter Tom Sorensen has proved.
At a campaign stop in Iowa City, Sorensen looked Newt Gingrich in the eye and said: “You’re a f-ing a-hole.”
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The encounter was caught by TV cameras, and CNN and online news outlets have been playing it up ever since, though by bleeping out the profanity.
At CNN it was described as being “dressed down by an Iowan voter at this Iowa grocery store.”
Before the two parted, the former House speaker who is running for the Republican nomination for president says to Sorensen, “Luckily it’s a free country.”
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“It was a very ugly moment for the former speaker,” Jim Acosta told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “He will admit himself, he arouses passions in people that sometimes can really vent themselves out on the campaign trail.”
AOL, by way of The Huffington Post, made the incident one of its top stories on its widely trafficked home page, and threw in a woman, identified as a supporter, telling Gingrich not to be “arrogant and narcissistic,” as well as a gay man who pressed Gingrich on his stance against same-sex marriage.
On Wednesday, a Google news search identified 1,944 news mentions of the incident, and many more if you run two searches, one with the spelling “Sorenson” and another with “Sorensen.”
A blog item linked at The Wall Street Journal, for example, was headlined: “Confirmed: Unhinged jerk who called Newt Gingrich a ‘f-king a-hole’ at grocery store is a Democrat.”
At the left-wing Wonkette blog, on the other hand, the video is presented under the headline: “Hero Iowa voter perfectly describes Newt Gingrich to his face.”
