Taking the Mittens Off
We’ve all been pointing and laughing at the Romney campaign as they find it simply impossible to defend not releasing his tax returns. Between throwing up a shiny bit of news bait of Condi as VP, stupid allegations of cronyism (from a guy who won’t tell who funds him or who bundles contributions) and even the desperation of taking the President’s words out of context — they can’t find their footing. Jonathan Chait writes in NY Magazine that Mitt Romney Gets Angry. And in getting angry, they aren’t going to get smarter, they are going to morph into the comments section of (insert rightwing blog site here). So that John Sununu trying to tell people that President Obama is not American is not a mistake of the news day — it is the signal that more is coming.
Chait relies on reporting from Buzzfeed:
In speeches from Des Moines to Dallas, Romney has always been careful to hedge his tough digs at Obama with a civil nod toward the president’s moral character: “He’s a nice guy,” the Republican has often said. “He just has no idea how the private economy works.” But Tuesday’s speech included no such hedge — and one campaign adviser said there’s a reason for that.
“[Romney] has said Obama’s a nice fellow, he’s just in over his head,” the adviser said. “But I think the governor himself believes this latest round of attacks that have impugned his integrity and accused him of being a felon go so far beyond that pale that he’s really disappointed. He believes it’s time to vet the president. He really hasn’t been vetted; McCain didn’t do it.”
Indeed, facing what the candidate and his aides believe to be a series of surprisingly ruthless, unfounded, and unfair attacks from the Obama campaign on Romney’s finances and business record, the Republican’s campaign is now prepared to go eye for an eye in an intense, no-holds-barred act of political reprisal, said two Romney advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity. In the next chapter of Boston’s pushback — which began last week when they began labeling Obama a “liar” — very little will be off-limits, from the president’s youthful drug habit, to his ties to disgraced Chicago politicians.
So instead of issues and vision, we are going to be treated to a tour of the fevered swamp wingnutland. Where President Obama isn’t one of us, where he has drug issues, active ties to disgraced politicians, Jeremiah Wright and whatever else they can gin up to remind people that it is Obama’s ontological blackness that is his disqualification for office. It is a stupid strategy — Palin and McCain (Palin mostly) worked this vein like nobody’s business and were eventually smacked back by even the media. But it is a strategy designed as a pitch to his pathetic ans racist base who won’t be happy until they get the notice of the tree they should all meet up at. Here’s Chait:
The point of disparaging Obama’s character is to paint him as a cultural alien unfit for the presidency. More of this theme may or may not have helped in 2008. But you can’t do that effectively against somebody who is already President of the United States. Obama has spent four years being photographed and filmed in the Rose Garden and saluting the troops and waving from Air Force One. Hard-core conservatives may still regard him as an alien figure, but this strategy stands zero chance of working with middle America. All it can do is chip away at Romney’s personal standing, which (in an electorate with settled views about the incumbent) is the one real variable at play here.
Apparently Rmoney is mad that Stephanie Cutter has the nerve to suggest that misstating the facts on an SEC filing may be a felony. But let’s remember that Romney took the President out of context not once, but twice in the fall and when this was pointed out to him, “he gleefully refused to apologize for dishonestly taking Obama out of context, thinking this makes him look like a player. Now Romney is pissed of because the Obama campaign has been successful in impugning Rmoney’s only claim for qualifications for the job. And Rmoney was supposed to be the adult in the room. Apparently even he doesn’t believe his own bullshit and what is left is only what his angry and delusional base tells him to say. Because really, all of this crap is based entirely in the wingnut delusion that Obama wasn’t properly “vetted”.
TPM is also reporting on this. (Why would a campaign tell reporters is it not only going negative, but that they are making stuff up while they are at it?) Telling the world that you are getting ready to succumb to wingnut fever dreams that most independents already find distasteful seems unhinged, thin-skinned and vindictive and not ready for prime time. Because when the 3AM call comes, you don’t get to rely on fever dreams to make the problem go away.
Tags: Mitt Romney, Republican Bamboozlement, Republican Liars
For all the “Anyone but Romney” talk in the primary, the GOP never unearthed the facts about his business (although Newt tried). I also read yesterday that Romeny has stated flat out that he is not releasing more tax returns and would rather drop out of the race than do so.
So, who is it that hasn’t been vetted?
It’s not just about Obama. Republicans are obsessed with their idea that Democratic office-holders are illegitimate and not entitled to power. Especially when they can’t beat them on policy. They tried it with Clinton too – how’d that work out? They probably tried it with FDR too (I’ll have to look it up). I guess the Business Plot counts. And the rumors FDR was Jewish.
With one whole political party holding the idea of democracy in utter contempt, it is a wonder that our system has worked at all over the past 200 or so years.
Obama is finally ahead in a game here. He has been taking the last few weeks as a chance to rain hell down on Romney about Bain. Yes, he HAS gone negative… justifiable and relevant negative, but still negative. He’s made his point on Bain and now his surrogates and the media and blogs will make sure people remember…. As soon as Romney starts talking about smoking pot in high school, or any other BS, Obama can pivot back to policy, take the high road and make the “Why is Romney so focused on what i did on 10th grade? Im focused on what kind of future your 10th grader is going to have” argument.
jsut one question remains…. Will this campaign genius stick around after he’s re-elected, or will we get mr “let’s all negotiate in good faith” I think he’s learned his lesson, and the GOP is going to have a very tough next 4 years. (the 4 years they should have been having)
It hasn’t been like that for 200 years… it’s this whole “extremism for the cause of liberty is no vice” Goldwater crap the GOP has morphed into. Ray-gun looks like a bleeding heart next to even the most “moderate” republican now a days.
last throes people…. last throes.
I’m trying to remember the last time I heard someone described as a “fiscal conservative.”
I think they’ve all been driven off.
Obama was ahead like this multiple times in the first half of his administration, but squandered it. Remember how we used to talk about the imminent demise of the GOP and how they would just be a Southern rump party? Yet every time, Obama would give the GOP a hand up to get back into the game.
No matter how well progressive positions do in the polls, as a party the GOP keeps running about even with Democrats and can beat us on any given election day. That’s because Democrats failed to pursue the voter-approved progressive solutions and chased compromise instead, which is a political loss as well as a loss for the economy.
Looks like Obama may have learned from those lessons. Campaigning seems to concentrate his mind. Of course, it’s still all just rhetoric at this point until legislation hits the floor.
Am I the only one gleeful we are pulling this out of them now, instead of October. Yes… Unconditional Surrender in November. No mercy. No stopping us now… We just might kill off the Republican Party forever. Indeed, a worthy goal if there ever was one.
Puck, Trying the high Broderist, bi-partisan comity route is something that all Presidents (not named Bush) want to try. For Obama, he ran on that in his first term so I’m not going to ding him for trying it.
If he goes back to it in his second term, then I have a problem. Knowing what we all know about modern Republicanism, I have a very big problem with any Dems thinking “if we only compromise a little more…”
@Kavips. Agreed. But it the super-pac world of today, he had little choice but to come out guns blazing.
Jason, i wont ding him for trying it either, what dissapoints me is that he kept trying it long after everyone knew it was pointless.
Score one for the Romney campaign’s street-fighting skills:
Fuck dressage loving a-holes.
Somebody needs to introduce a bill to make dancing horses reimbursable by Medicaid. Or better yet, by Romneycare.
If only all MS sufferers could afford a therapy horse. The drugs alone cost $30,000 a year. If Romney gets elected and repeals Obamacare, many MS sufferers will become uninsurable and go bankrupt. And that’s a terrible burden to add to someone with a lifelong incurable illness.
There is a news report out that says the horse was sold and the buyers sued the Romneys for 200+k claiming the horse was in worse physical shape than the Romneys claimed. The horse tested abnormally high for pain killers.
The case was settled out of court.
I can’t find a link but I recall Ann’s previous horse was named “Gucci.”
… Apparently Gucci was the competitor for Salt Lake City. Here’s the link, including the story of how Gucci put her MS into remission:
http://web.ksl.com/dump/news/cc/series/trail.htm
This is part of the story of the horse drugged to conceal a bad foot.
The Romneys have these horses for more than therapy reasons. But hey! Let’s hope that some reporter asks them if they’d be in favor of making sure everyone with MS gets a therapy horse.
Corporations are not only people, they can also be horses!
This horse is a business investment, not a medical deduction.
It will seal the little girl vote.
“Vote for me, get a pony.”
Obama’s team needs to find Gucci and get him to make a campaign ad. Unless Mitt has already sent him to the glue factory. In China.
A bit off the subject The NYPD had a surveillance set up in New Jersey to spy on Muslim’s. Since Michelle Bachmann and her crazy group are interested in the fact that the Muslim’s may be infiltrating or government. It has been reported that Grover Norquist wife is a Muslim and for years he has been under her influence and has been controlling a good portion of our congress and senate . Wait didn’t Mechelle and the four clowns sign his pledge? Stop everything contact the FBI,CIA and home land security for we just might have uncovered a Muslim Sister hood plot led by that Manchurian Candidate Grover.