Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Romney: I Was for Paul Ryan before I Was Against Him

Sometimes campaigns go off the rails. It just happens. John McCain picks Sarah Palin, or John McCain suspends his campaign because of the financial meltdown, and then sits at the table with Obama and sulks. This stuff just happens. Hell, Democratic VP pick Thomas Eagleton in 1972 had shock therapy, so the Republicans aren't the only ones vulnerable to the campaign misstep that ends it for them.

And this latest, weird twist isn't the worst thing I've seen, but it cries out to be recognized, at least in the category of "Couldn't you people have seen this coming and avoided it? I mean, really?"

Of course I'm talking about Mitt Romney going on "Meet the Press," something he doesn't really like doing because he has trouble controlling the message when somebody gets to ask "questions," and then condemning people for wanting to cut defense spending.

Wasn't there somebody in the Romney campaign whose job it is to be sure that Mitt Romney doesn't condemn his own running mate, Paul Ryan?

And what makes matters worse, wasn't there someone on the team that is supposed to warn Paul Ryan that he can't just say "It wasn't me" on national television and get away with it?

Let's look at the video:


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Romney's main comments on the defense cuts come at about the :50 mark.

Now let's watch Paul Ryan being interviewed about this by CBS's Norah O'Donnell:


I don't see how they spin their way out of this. Mitt Romney was for his running mate before he was against him. And Paul, Paul, how long do you think you can hide behind word salad to avoid criticisms for past missteps?

This is no way to run a campaign, assuming someone's running it at all.

3 comments:

  1. Eric Fehrnstrom is really bad at his job, and Romney is never going to fire him. This probably isn't the entire reason for the lack of competence from the Romney camp, but it's I think the first step in understanding what's going on here.

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  2. Yeah, Fehrnstrom's etch-a-sketch comment certainly got the campaign off on a bad foot. Pretty hard to etch-a-sketch that.

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  3. the video snippet with the interview with romney "sept. 9 Does Romney's math add up" doesn't seem to have the beforementioned quote in it. Maybe something went wrong with the link?

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