Slog
News & ArtsFriday, July 13, 2012
2012 The Romney Campaign Is Flailing
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 12:19 PM
To put it delicately, the Romney campaign has not been doing a very good job so far of managing crises. Since the Boston Globe story broke yesterday about a discrepancy in Romney's claims about when he left Bain Capital, they've responded with a fractured series of half-measures. First, the Romney campaign demanded that the Globe run an apology, even though they didn't dispute any of the Globe's facts.
Today, the Romney campaign published an ad that basically claims these attacks are all unfair and that Obama is being mean by pushing them:
It sounds like a whole lot of whining to me, and it's especially unfortunate that the ad brings up the outsourcing claims that are right now central to this Bain story. (If the Globe's new story is correct, those outsourcing charges are even more relevant than they were a week ago.)
There's a third, weirder angle to the Romney campaign's response, though: Last night, the Drudge Report ran a story suggesting that Condoleezza Rice was being considered for Romney's vice president, which immediately sent Twitter off into a, well, twitter. Now, it's generally thought that the Romney campaign leaked the Rice story to Drudge to get the heat off of this Bain story. If that's true, it was a callous, cynical attempt to exploit the teeny-weeny attention span of the American people, and it didn't work.
So my questions are: When will the Romney campaign put together a real response? And is the Republican Party panicking at seeing the shoddy blunderbuss-style response to this crisis? News is breaking that Romney is doing sit-downs with most of the major news networks today. Will this be enough? Why has it taken so long for the Romney campaign to put together a response? Did they really not see this coming? Romney is famous for being loyal to his campaign team, but at some point the larger party is going to have to step in and force a little more of a national-scale level of preparedness into Romney's people. They've been doing abysmally so far.
1
Mitt Rmoney's been running for president for six years now. You'd think one of his staff would have realized this could be a vulnerability, maybe? Or maybe not. Guess it doesn't figure into the prophecy, eh?
3
Staff: Well, that's start with some easy questions, what is your income? [Rmoney response] Huh? Well, what did you pay in taxes? [Rmoney] Now, how does that work? [Rmoney] But you said you don't work at Bain anymore.
4
So I'm a bit confused.
If Bain put down Romney as CEO past 1999 (the year Romney said he stepped down to go run the Olympics) on SEC documents, didn't they/he violate the law?
And if he was still CEO, as was on the SEC documentation that shareholders would have received, why did the campaign say he left in 1999?
Seems like he wants it both ways but one way or another, someone is lying/hedging.
It seems dumb but that's Romeny.
If Bain put down Romney as CEO past 1999 (the year Romney said he stepped down to go run the Olympics) on SEC documents, didn't they/he violate the law?
And if he was still CEO, as was on the SEC documentation that shareholders would have received, why did the campaign say he left in 1999?
Seems like he wants it both ways but one way or another, someone is lying/hedging.
It seems dumb but that's Romeny.
5
Do any of the stories reveal if Romney received any earned income or employee benefits (like healthcare) from Bain during the time in dispute? I'm not talking cap gains or dividends or carried interest from the various partnerships, but a "base salary" from the parent/holding company? If he did, that would indicate a continued active, management role. (Yet another reason we should see his tax returns from that time.)
7
OF COURSE they're going to mention outsourcing. That's how Swiftboating works: pretend your weakness is really your opponent's weakness, and run enough bullshit ads to convince 57% of the "low information" undecided dumbasses to believe you.
See also Obamacare/Romneycare, unemployment, and probably soon legislative gridlock, and Wall Street coziness (the last a genuine problem with the O admin, so maybe that's not really Swiftboating, 'though Rmoney would be worse, if that's possible.)
See also Obamacare/Romneycare, unemployment, and probably soon legislative gridlock, and Wall Street coziness (the last a genuine problem with the O admin, so maybe that's not really Swiftboating, 'though Rmoney would be worse, if that's possible.)
8
Romney is a pathological liar. Plain and simple. And this is no small thing. Eric Holder should investigate.
9
The richest angle to this whole affair is that one of the companies Bain (and thus Romney, who was its sole shareholder and CEO) invested in a company named Stericycle which, among other things, disposed of aborted fetuses.
That's right: the current GOP nominee for President made part of his fortune from abortion. How do think that will play with the base?
That's right: the current GOP nominee for President made part of his fortune from abortion. How do think that will play with the base?
10
@5 yes he collected a salary from Bain of $100,000 a year for the time period in question. That much he has admitted and is not in dispute. What did he earn this salary? No one knows and Romney isn't saying.
11
As if outsourcing is so bad in the first place. And yet Obama talks about the need to compete in a global economy. So what if some company outsourced their support center so they could hire more engineers or other professionals at livable wages? And it's all pretty much moot anyway, as companies found that in some cases the support is better at home and have since insourced.
13
Well hold the boat... CNN reports that Romney is telling the truth that he had nothing to do with Bain after 1999.
Of course their sources are Bain employees. Nice job CNN.
Of course their sources are Bain employees. Nice job CNN.
14
Romney is pretty much toast now unless he releases every full tax return back to 1998, chips fall where they may. He'll -- if he makes it to the election now without an indictment -- get the votes of the True Believers and nothing more. Obama 65%-35% or 60%-40%. I'm calling it.
This will either be a Gary Hart type flame out with the role of Donna Rice being played by Bain Capital, or else we're looking at John Edwards 2.0.
I'd go so far as to say that if this all keeps playing out as it has--and there's no reason to assume it will not, as the Boston Globe is apparently taking their sweet time doling out things they've uncovered in public filings, including details on things Romney personally ON PAPER signed off in 1999-2002. Even better, he may have committed election fraud: if he was living in Utah full time, working 12 hours a day to run the Olympics, he wasn't eligible to vote or be elected in Massachusetts.
The stink of failure around Romney may be strong enough to give Democrats back the House. If that happens, I expect that some time around February 1, 2013 we'll see Harry Reid announce the end of the filibuster (a trivial parliamentary maneuver) and we'll see the House and Senate rapid fire send bills to Obama to end DOMA, legalize gay marriage, decriminalize marijuana, give us single payer... you see where it's heading.
Thanks, Mittens!
This will either be a Gary Hart type flame out with the role of Donna Rice being played by Bain Capital, or else we're looking at John Edwards 2.0.
I'd go so far as to say that if this all keeps playing out as it has--and there's no reason to assume it will not, as the Boston Globe is apparently taking their sweet time doling out things they've uncovered in public filings, including details on things Romney personally ON PAPER signed off in 1999-2002. Even better, he may have committed election fraud: if he was living in Utah full time, working 12 hours a day to run the Olympics, he wasn't eligible to vote or be elected in Massachusetts.
The stink of failure around Romney may be strong enough to give Democrats back the House. If that happens, I expect that some time around February 1, 2013 we'll see Harry Reid announce the end of the filibuster (a trivial parliamentary maneuver) and we'll see the House and Senate rapid fire send bills to Obama to end DOMA, legalize gay marriage, decriminalize marijuana, give us single payer... you see where it's heading.
Thanks, Mittens!
15
@ 14, it's nice to daydream, but I'm sure as hell not going to buy that as realistic. Not based on what we know so far.
Rmoney's in an ugly mess, but it's not like Obama's image in the popular mind is of a knight in shining armor. He still has plenty of work to do. And the super PAC money spigot is only running at a trickle now. It's still an uphill battle.
Rmoney's in an ugly mess, but it's not like Obama's image in the popular mind is of a knight in shining armor. He still has plenty of work to do. And the super PAC money spigot is only running at a trickle now. It's still an uphill battle.
16
The big question for me is, why has Romney chosen to subject himself to this kind of scrutiny? The guy could be enjoying his money right now, going for yacht rides, driving one or another of his Cadillacs, snorting cocaine off the bellies of his multiple teenaged wives... why this? Every two bit politician and reporter with his or her nose way up your ass? Is the power of government really that enticing? Is it so important to him that his face gets on the dollar coin someday? It seems like a voluntary trip into the deepest pits of Hell. Unless he's truly dedicated to public service or a genuine psychopathic monster - neither of which seems to be the case - I just don't get it.
17
@15, I too think @14 was being a bit optimistic. Still, when your own party is speculating about how you paid no taxes and that your handling of this has been terrible before the convention, that's interesting.
Blood's in the water. Dems, your turn. Don't fuck it up, m'kay?
Blood's in the water. Dems, your turn. Don't fuck it up, m'kay?
18
@16 he's not creative enough to write the great American novel so instead he's spends his retirement years running for the highest office in the land.
19
@16- He is a case study out the excellent book Character Disturbance. Romney shows many of the disturbed character that Dr. Simon outlines: the obsessive lying, the need to get ahead no matter how many he tramples along the way, his lack of compassion, his evasiveness and impression management, his high school bullying, just to name a few. He seeks to obtain the highest office only to inflate his ego and to position himself to screw as many people as possible. A more adjusted rich person would choose the coke and caddies, a sociopath always wants more power.
20
So the Bot demanded an apology from the Washington Post about an outsourcing article, now the Bot has demanded an apology from the Boston Globe.
Perhaps the Bot could use some of his $250,000,000 to just buy out those papers, and then get them to apologize and retract the unflattering stories.
Perhaps the Bot could use some of his $250,000,000 to just buy out those papers, and then get them to apologize and retract the unflattering stories.
21
@11 Oh house faggot with the dead of AIDS boyfriend!
Thank you so so very much. You're now showing your true colors. I mean, really!, claiming to have a hard time finding a job until recently. Well whose fault is that. Clearly you've made very, very bad choices in your life. Or maybe it's because your just plain stupid. But really it's because you're a sad and pathetic homosexual who if push came to shove probably doesn't want to be. So you just want to drag us all into your sad well of loneliness. I actually feel a micro-smidgeon sad for you. Sort of like you don't feel for all those people whose jobs have been outsourced by your butt master Rmoney-the-piece-of-shit.
Thank you so so very much. You're now showing your true colors. I mean, really!, claiming to have a hard time finding a job until recently. Well whose fault is that. Clearly you've made very, very bad choices in your life. Or maybe it's because your just plain stupid. But really it's because you're a sad and pathetic homosexual who if push came to shove probably doesn't want to be. So you just want to drag us all into your sad well of loneliness. I actually feel a micro-smidgeon sad for you. Sort of like you don't feel for all those people whose jobs have been outsourced by your butt master Rmoney-the-piece-of-shit.
22
@21: You say you feel a micro-smidgeon sad for me, well I must say, dear Sir, a feel an enormous sadness for you. Clearly your rage in life is not limited to retorts on my Slog comments. Good luck in finding at least some peace in life.
25
Condi Rice is the Black female Dick Cheney. With bad teeth. Oh please keep her out of the public eye. Evil incarnate.
And there is still a good chance that Mitt the Shit will win this thing, most Americans are So Fucking Stupid.
And there is still a good chance that Mitt the Shit will win this thing, most Americans are So Fucking Stupid.
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