Wednesday Open Thread [9.12.12]: The Mitt Romney Lehman Moment Edition
“This was news-cycle campaigning by the Romney campaign gone awry. Why didn’t the Romney campaign wait until it had all the facts? On his overseas trip in the summer, Romney was so careful not to criticize Obama while on foreign soil. But how much time do you give an administration to work through a diplomatic and international crisis before trying to score immediate political points? You’d expect the Sarah Palins of the world to quickly pounce on something like this, and she predictably did. But a presidential nominee running for the highest office in the land?”
“After the facts have come out, last night’s Romney statement only feeds the narrative that his campaign is desperate. And given that the Romney camp has already moved on to other subjects this morning — issuing a press release on debt and not the embassy attacks — it appears the campaign realizes it, too. Right before our publication time, the Romney camp responds to us that it stands by its statement from last night.”
Mitt Romney’s “sharply-worded attack on President Obama over a pair of deadly riots in Muslim countries last night has backfired badly among foreign policy hands of both parties, who cast it as hasty and off-key, released before the facts were clear at what has become a moment of tragedy.”
Said a very senior Republican foreign policy hand: “They were just trying to score a cheap news cycle hit based on the embassy statement and now it’s just completely blown up.”
Said another Republican: “I guess we see now that it is because they’re incompetent at talking effectively about foreign policy. This is just unbelievable — when they decide to play on it they completely bungle it.”
Another said it was “a parallel to the moment when John McCain, amid the 2008 financial crisis, failed to come across as a steady leader.”
Mark Halperin, Holder of All Conventional Wisdom:
Unless the Romney campaign has gamed this crisis out in some manner completely invisible to the Gang of 500, his doubling down on criticism of the President for the statement coming out of Cairo is likely to be seen as one of the most craven and ill-advised tactical moves in this entire campaign.
It’s just remarkable to see Romney unravel like this. Within hours of learning that a respected U.S. ambassador had been killed by a violent mob overseas, the Republican’s first instinct was to launch a partisan campaign attack against the president. It came after a dishonest smear of the president last night — on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, when Romney said he’d refrain from such attacks.
Check out the video above. It seems that Ambassador Stevens was an amazing person.
“[Romney] won’t comment further due to protocol” TOO FUCKING LATE
This is the moment where I have decided that I want Romney destroyed in this election. I didn’t like the man before, but I never hated him. Now I hate him with a passion of a thousand suns. I want his political career ended on November 6 if not before. I want him to become a laughingstock.
I’m hoping that Romney tops out at 50 million votes.
If nothing else, Romney’s flubs might cause the press to start looking at him with the kind of skepticism and jaundiced eye they should have had all along. Of course they are all wealth worshippers too, but being lied to might just insult their egos enough to provoke them into real journalism. This has already begun in some surprising quarters – Chris Matthews, Soledad O’Brien, etc. If he loses Katie Couric it’s over.
Because of the primaries, this isn’t getting as much attention in Delaware as everywhere else. Every Washington blog is on fire with this, and not in a way that augers anything good for Mitt. Lots of Republicans are weighing in against him: Joe Scarborough and Peggy Noonan for two.
Andrew Sullivan:
Of course Romney is an idiot for his comments today….That being said, The Obama administration should not have come out against the original statement made by the US embassy in Egypt. It seems to me that if you have a building full of professional Diplomats under attack, why is it so surprising that their statement or (tweet) would be worded diplomatically? Let’s not forget that the tweet was sent out while their walls were being scaled. Sending out a tweet of condemnation could have easily backfired and caused greater property damage and possibly even bloodshed. Our diplomats responded in a way consistent with our values and Obama should not have thrown them under the bus.
True enough. I think it was a matter of making sure Romney had no legs to stand on.
Willard Rmoney sees no problem in attacking America
in what he wrongly thought would be a political opportunity
for his failing campaign.
Rmoney is a world leader from what country already?
Someone needs to remind Willard, he’s just a Tea Party candidate.
Barack Obama is the President of the United States.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7421436n
First let me say I don’t mean any offense for what I’m about to post. I am dealing with this subject in my own family and I know it is very difficult…but has anyone considered that Mitt Romney may suffer from Early Onset Alzheimer’s?
Check out the top ten signs and symptoms listed on http://www.alzinfo.org:
1.) Memory loss (4 years as Governor)
2.) Difficulty performing familiar tasks (political interviews)
3.) Problems with language (“severely conservative”)
4.) Disorientation to time and place (Russia is the enemy?)
5.) Poor or decreased judgment (response to attacks overseas)
6.) Problems with abstract thinking (I’m just saying)
7.) Misplacing things (policies clearly stated on his own website)
8.) Change in mood or behavior (actually I think he’s pretty flat most of the time)
9.) Changes in personality (flip flop flip flop)
10.) Loss of initiative (one campaign stop per day)
Romney’s severely adrift
http://my.useroot.com/photos/image/127/polar-bear-melting-ice-caps
Maybe he really IS Reagan reborn, amy. and yeah, no offense and all that.
I do not want Mr. Romney in the White House.
His amateurish approach to foreign policy is frightening.
@amy – Alzheimer’s is a possibility but my money is on Asberger’s Syndrome. This most recent episode is case in point. Insulting the British, our closest ally, telling folks during the primaries that he is “unemployed” and “corporations are people too, my friend” are other examples. The dog traveling on the car roof truly shows a (lack of) empathy. Basically, he can’t read a room or connect well emotionally. None of us have it totally together but a president who has difficulty being sensitive to the emotional content of a situation and can’t consider another point of view is DANGEROUS.
@amy – Alzheimer’s is a possibility but my money is on Asberger’s Syndrome. This most recent episode is case in point. Insulting the British, our closest ally, telling folks during the primaries that he is “unemployed” and “corporations are people too, my friend” are other examples. The dog traveling on the car roof truly shows a (lack of) empathy. Basically, he can’t read a room or connect well emotionally. None of us has it totally together but a president who has difficulty being sensitive to the emotional content of a situation and can’t consider another point of view is DANGEROUS.