Spot the problematic language in this quote, which Mitt Romney delivered on CNN this morning:
After winning the Florida primary, GOP presidential nominee hopeful Mitt Romney explains to CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien that he is focused on a particular portion of the American population in his campaign.
Romney says, “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs a repair , I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich…. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”
O’Brien asked him to clarify his remarks saying, “There are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say, ‘That sounds odd.’”
Romney continues, “We will hear from the Democrat party, the plight of the poor…. You can focus on the very poor, that’s not my focus…. The middle income Americans, they’re the folks that are really struggling right now and they need someone that can help get this economy going for them.”
I included the full quote to show that what Romney says, in totality, is defensible. He wants to build up the middle class. Fine. But that won’t be the headline coming out of that interview. “I’m not concerned about the very poor” is language too easily used against Mitt Romney, who may be the richest presidential candidate we’ve ever had. It follows “I like to be able to fire people” in being true and defensible in context, but also language that will pose problems later on. The quote about the very poor is sure to show up in Democrat ads if Romney is the nominee, and it will be followed by a bunch of stats and clips depicting his policies as hostile to the poor, or something, to make him and by extension the party that nominated him look heartless, miserly, and out of touch. It won’t be fair, but it will be done. And that sentence, which Romney didn’t have to say, provides the lead for those ads.
A better way to have said what Romney wanted to say might be “Of course I’m concerned about the very poor, as I am concerned about everyone who is struggling in this economy. I am very concerned that this president’s policies have increased poverty and decreased upward mobility. Barack Obama is creating more dependency on government with his wrong-headed policies, straining the safety net that we have in our society. He has no business experience and doesn’t even understand how the private sector functions. I’ve spent most of my life in business, and as president I will focus on creating the conditions to make it easier for everyone to succeed and move up the economic ladder.” Or words to that effect.
If Mitt Romney is to be the GOP nominee, he needs to up his game to make it harder for the MSM and the Democrats to use his own words as weapons against him.
Update: What was that I was saying about headlines?
Romney and his team would do well to remember that their opponents are confirmed serial smear artists. They — the Obama campaign, the Democrats, the NAACP, the media — tried tying the brutal murder of James Byrd to then Gov. George W. Bush, despite the fact that Bush meted out severe justice to Byrd’s killers. There’s no need to hand these folks the weapons to beat you with. They will create their own weapons. Romney’s “I’m not concerned about the very poor” hands them a nuke.
Update: An unforced error which Newt Gingrich’s folks are happy to dishonestly exploit.
This guy has the instincts of George Costanza.
Whatever his instinct is…he should do the opposite.
Heaven help us, this entire slate has been a complete disaster.
dividing america into classes and groups is the hallmark of our ruling class
there is a blueprint for crushing statism and it was created by ronaldus magnus; to not follow it not only shows the contempt the republican rulers have for the american voter but, more sinisterly, reveals the core similarities between the status quo’ers of both parties
– while it is true that a Pyrrhic victory is still a victory, what will you do next? At the convention you will stand alone and undone. You have demonstrated that you can tear down, but it has been months since you talked up your 57 Varieties plan. Can you count on residual goodwill for the Romney name in Mass., Michigan…Utah? Will the 6 million here contribute the maximum to your campaign?
That was stunningly stupid and you are correct that it will come back to haunt him. The more this guy talks the more ammo he provides for the opposition.
I see Mittens’ foot-in-mouth disease has returned with a vengeance.
If you’ll forgive the self-referential link, it’s not the first time.
Give him credit for not adding that he also wanted to eat the poor. That took discipline, you have to respect that.
McMitt is a disaster. What a marxist punching bag he is. They couldn’t design a better foil.
He’s like a high school athlete who was 6’4″, 220 lbs in the 7th grade and was able to win on size alone. Of course, in McMitt’s case, it isn’t size, it’s money.
But there is always another league. Guys who are like him in high school, unless they really learn how to play, or are genuinely world class, peter out in college or the pros.
But his backers don’t really care. They just want to eliminate the people who would shake up the establishment. Did anybody notice that they did VERY well, thank you very much, during the last 4 years, while most Americans sank into economic abyss.
There’s a reason McMitt won’t release multiple years of his taxes, and it isn’t because he paid 15%, because that is already revealed. His refusal to disclose will become a big issue in the general, if he succeeds in buying the nomination. The marxists will get their hands on the returns that are most damaging. Bank on it.
Choices are: Obama heavy vs. Romney lite.
Obama heavy gives We The People a fast track to marxist/leninist rulers.
Romney lite gives We The People a slower. plodding to marxist/leninist rulers.
Tough choice. Now, if there were the same criteria applied to product purchasing and its advertising as well as to advertising for political purposes, honesty would be restored to both product selection AND candidate selection.
Why do We The People demand “Truth in Advertising” for a product, and sluff off “Truth in Advertsising” for a politician? When did that happen? They’re both one and the same…using the same media, same professional paradigms, same Admen from Madison Avenue…why the disconnect?
OH! A product falsely advertised could do harm to a purchaser whereas a candidate for office falsely advertising can’t do any harm to We The People, AHA! Gotcha! That’s easy to understand?????
Demand Truth in Advertising! PERIOD! It works for products, should work for people. God Bless America! Amen!
Several presidential candidates have been extremely rich. Kennedy (inherited it), Bush (inherited it), Kerry (married it). At least Romney earned it.
and when compared to the war chest of obamanation, which was essentially pillaged from the american taxpayer, these “rich” candidates are nickel and dimers
Is precisely his problem when he say comments like – I like firing people or I’m not concerned about the poor. Remember his first general election ad when Romney was in NH and he was acting like he was already the anointed one? Well it took something out of context about Obama by attributing quotes of John McCain to Obama. In nano seconds it backfired on him with Obama’s MM responding because it was a deliberate falsehood from the Romney camp – an unforced error. Well now does one thing the mainstream media is now going to explain his gaffe’s? NO
In 2008 John McCain an all and I mean all the other candidates hated and despised Romney. No one likes him and people cannot connect to him. He inspires no one.
He is going to be our nominee because he has the money and everyone will know he bought it. Do you think the base will come out and support him? I don’t. Here many are interested in politics and will hold our nose and vote for him but to the vast majority they will either vote Obama, third party, or stay home. I’d rather they not stay home so at least the down ticket will get support.
Yesterday we saw what happens when there is no excitement for the candidate leading in the polls – there were 250,000 less republican voters than in 2008. That’s a disaster in a state like that if they stay home.
Let’s hope Newt can at least broker the convention but we need Paul to stay in and Santorum to drop and little Ricky doesn’t know enough to get out.
He is going to be our nominee because he has the money and everyone will know he bought it.
I dunno. If Newt can keep rolling for another few states, I wonder if he can break Romney’s bank, or if the public will turn on Romney.
Let’s hope Newt can at least broker the convention but we need Paul to stay in and Santorum to drop and little Ricky doesn’t know enough to get out.
I think it’s better for the brokered convention if Santorum stays in, but he’s going to have trouble doing it.
At least Romney earned it.
Ahem.
Bill Gates “earned” his. Arguably even Warren Buffet “earned” his, even though he did it in finance and not manufacturing widgets. Maybe Kobe Bryant “earns” his nine-figure wealth (though he may end up with only eight digits after the divorce). BUT in general, when I see fat salaries in finance, “earn” is not necessarily what I think is justified.
Do you really think Mitt was one of the drivers of Bain? Could a guy as vague on the issues, have been that clever in finance? Would we be talking about this gaff after the last gaff, if he were so clever? Or was he just a corner-office guy, an empty suit, with a big name? Any big outfit has some of those, not even a rainmaker as such. Sometimes they contribute a little, sometimes they just play golf, maybe make some introductions. It’s honest work of sorts. But when it pays $250,000,000, I really don’t know about “earn”.
Michael Milken “earned” his, he made up a whole new industry, basically disintermediated guys even greedier than he was. But they had to take him down. He survived. I wish I had as positive a view of Mitt.
It’s not the dollars, Roger…it’s the sense.
The Prom King candidate does not need to stoke the class warfare fires that have been lit by the small c communists.
And, would you like to bet a lunch at Nate & Al’s on whether Gingrich and Team will throw logs on that fire now?
Earning wealth or winning a mega-lottery does not inoculate one from cluelessness or a terminal case of oafish, out of touch, clumsiness.
Promney can’t find an outlet that fits his plugs. There’s no “connectivity” to him. Heaven help us all…Ron Paul generates more electricity…and he’s using a crank.
Newtrino may be a gun that goes off half-cocked much of the time, but at least there’s a spark in there.
Promney could play Jeopardy against IBM’s Watson, and nobody would be able to tell which one was the robot. Each would claim an artificial intelligence, only Watson’s could be proven to have at least originated with humans.
I’m quite sure that underneath that layer of out of touch cluelessness, there’s an empty shell in there someplace.
Completely, totally…empty.
Who is against rich people?
What I don’t like is buying elections, and using positions of wealth and power to enrich oneself at the expense of others.
If Romney spent gazillions explaining why he is the best choice for president, I might not be supporting him, but I certainly wouldn’t be calling him a smear merchant.
I was one of McMitt’s few defenders on PJM before he began smearing Newt, after smearing Perry and Cain, and four othr candidates in 2008.
But the pattern is clear. He smears his opponents. Every time.
I also don’t have much against truthful negative campaigning. Newt’s numerous wandering positions are fair game. So are his divorces. So is his deal with Fannie and Freddie. But to blatantly claim that he is against capitalism, is lying about his RR history, and was responsible for the housing meltdown is just so outrageously a pack of lies that I can’t see how anybody could possibly support the guy who has to play that way to win.
It means I will have to think long and hard to ever support him, including supporting him against little lenin.
Obviously, I’m not alone.
And of course, Newtrino never ever tried to smear Mittens with an accusation that he denied kosher food to elderly Jews.
Nope, never happened. Newtrino is pure as the driven snow when it comes to smears.
– family name meant little or nothing in those circles.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/rich-really-are-different_617667.html
“It’s not clear, however, that Romney’s defense of Bain really gets to the heart of the matter as voters see it. Even if you stipulate that (1) Romney never acted improperly at Bain and (2) However unpleasant outsourcing, layoffs, and debt leveraging are, it was all to the creatively destructive good—you’re still left with two uncomfortable questions for which the candidate has no answer.
“First, there’s the notion of how Romney has sold himself: as an entrepreneur who took risks to create success. This vision is true, to a point. Romney did run a company, Bain Capital. But he achieved executive status via a highly unusual pathway. The idea for Bain Capital was not Romney’s (it was the brainchild of Bill Bain). And the startup money behind Bain Capital was not Romney’s (it came from Bill Bain and other partners in his consulting firm). Romney was an employee of Mr. Bain—an incredibly talented and valued employee. And Mr. Bain asked him to run this new venture with an explicit guarantee that if the job didn’t work out he could always have his old position back—and that if he failed, Mr. Bain would be sure to cover up the failure.”
Well I guess at Bain he was not worried about a pink slip. So where did he work that he was worried about a pink slip? lol
Where are the flyers describing how Bain saved capitalism, one restructured company at a time?
It could be an entire website…77 success stories.
We could be reading about the amazing strategic realignments, the workforces re-trained, bottom lines turned around, products created, markets opened, management teams and techniques infused, quality programs implemented, capital purchases made, efficiencies implemented, systems added.
Bain’s critics should be overwhelmed with information about how this business genius transformed 77 companies. Every company should be the topic of a two-minute success-story video.
After reading how McMitt transformed 77 businesses by applying brilliant judgement and management techniques, the country couldn’t possibly resist handing over the presidency to the all-time king of transformation.
Right?
I have no problems with Romney’s wealth. Good for him.
But let’s face it, folks, this dunderhead keeps stepping in the dog piles. Unforced errors indeed, mounting up week by week.
He’s not concerned about the poor. He can’t explain his own tax returns clearly and succinctly. He says the economy’s doing okay under Obama.
THIS is the champion we’re gonna send into the ring to battle Obama? Am I the only one that feels a tad bit discouraged?
So, we have a fortunate mormon son from the one percent of the tail on the right of the standard distribution (where the ultra rich democrats exist also) exclaiming that he’s not really concerned about the one percent of the tail on the left of the normal bell curve( denoting the poor of which the rich democrats are supposedly concerned about)? As I recall there sure were a lot of chicken hawks in that one percent right tail standard distribution: Cheney, Quail, Trump, Newt, Romney. The last ultra rich republican president from the one percent right tail with a moderate progressive flavor was H.H., Herbert Hoover, and that boy had no military exposure either. But supposedly Romney is so concerned about all those struggling in the middle of the bell curve, and that’s why federal Obamacare is bad, but state level Obamacare is good for managing the cost curve. It’s sort of like arguing in 1860 that federal support of slavery and indentured servitude was bad, but it’s AOK if the states want to do indentured servitude to get matching Federal block grants to help defray and pay for the tax subsidies paid by the middle class to produce and export cotton.
At least he isn’t crazy like Newt.
He’s ready for Prime Time.
He is inevitable and electable.
It’s his turn.
Just like McCain & Dole.
I mean, if we are going to send our jobs overseas and let Wall Street loot what is left, let’s put a professional in charge.
While I know this is a big gaffe by Romney, it should not go unsaid that most of us knew what he was saying even if he did not articulate it in a better manner. We know that the middle class are one of the biggest givers to the poor and always look out for the poor and the destitute in a broader perspective than the very rich who mainly just give money. The middle class citizens dole out not only their money, but their time, and engage in activities to support the less fortunate. By creating an environment for self sufficiency of the middle class we are helping those less fortunate.Of course, Soledad was so happy she probably peed her pants waiting for this to make the rounds in the media hoping to prove once and for all that Republicans do not care and have never cared about those less fortunate then oursleves. I think Romney needs a more grounded advisor in his campaign to help resolve these gaffes and show the real Mitt who is a very caring and personable man who could be a great President. And yes, I am available for the job.
Well, it’s too bad there will be no national ethos in the future, because if Mitt Romney gets smeared over an entirely reasonable comment then folks need to start thinking that this nation is not something to waste much time over anymore. I know I am.
Especially if no one fights back.
Hear.. Hear… Exactly right! The MSM will play “gotcha games” no matter the nominee on the right. Also, we must be aware of selective editing in these “factual” discourses. Not saying it happened here, but we must be mindful of its existense.
There will be two standards employed and so an “un-forced error” becomes a farce.
I think I see the themes for this election:
Muslim 2008
Mormon 2012
Mitt can also work in his Mexican connections including to the Mayans. Maybe he can mediate their message of mayhem.
Mitt can name Gingrich first ambassador to the Moon.
It’s a very great time in American politics and the letter M.
Also note that NPR very slyly worked in a story this week about his Mormomex brethen in the north of Mexico seeking to change Mexican gun laws. Their cause is just, but NPR probably wants to plant the following seeds of doubt:
1. Romney’s a MEX
2. Romney might use our military (or DREAM ACT kids) to rescue his kin or establish their domain over Mexico (scare the NWO/Amero crowd).
And always remember, Mormonism = Islam, had the angel Gabriel landed in the British Isles or Scandinavia instead of the Arabian desert.
This was not a gaffe which can be explained away by spinning – like, the poor do have safety nets and the middle classes are indeed being squeezed.
This is a case of not having a grain of political instinct. Worse – he said this twice, it was not a slip of the tongue which would have been bad enough. This has made him into a political liability for the GOP establishment and for all Republicans.
This will lose him the election, should he even be nominated now.
Or does anybody here think the democrat campaigners and Obama will not use this video? Look forward to being told about this when canvassing in the Presidential election!
And does anybody here think the other three GOP candidates will not use this utterance in the upcoming campaigns? No back room arm twisting by the GOP establishment will make them refrain.
Not even the GOP establishment can sweep this under the carpet.
This may turn out to be the costliest “gaffe” Mitt has ever committed.
In a lot of ways, Romney is correct, when you consider the near-scam the EITC tax credit is and also the way that banks have been stingy with refinancing opportunities for under-water but timely payment-making homeowners. Just a very inelegant way of stating what may be factually true.
I’m sorry, the first printable thing that comes to mind is a Chinese expletive that translates:
“Stupid, inbred, stack of meat!”
Romney is going to make the McGovern campaign look like Guderian driving through France in 1940.
I have run a county level Republican presidential campaign.
Candidates are frozen and defined by the images created as they campaign. Dukakis in the tank with the Mickey Mouse helmet, followed by the picture of Willy Horton comes to mind. I know, I did it with radio commercials I wrote, produced, and performed that pinned that on him along with some truly off-key statements he made about western water rights [we are mountain ranchers here]. I did it on talk radio. I did it with the scripts for our phone banks.
Getting the people willing to man the HQ and stand and argue with the other side, getting people to be willing to call total strangers and argue for your candidate, getting people to commit themselves to identify their choice of candidate and side with yard signs and bumper stickers, getting people to be willing to talk to friends and neighbors in favor of your candidate over coffee; requires that they not be embarrassed and shamed by the association.
Now I admit that as a Conservative, he already is far below the level I will tolerate to be associated with me. This is the worst national level campaign I have ever seen. He attacks and disrespects his own party’s base while presenting his throat to the enemy. At least McGovern and Dukakis made sure that their own base was on their side.
As I said, he is below what I will tolerate as being associated with my name. But I have to admit that I pity the poor sod who tries to run Romney’s campaign here. And we are one of the more hardcore Republican counties in the state. The word in the street here among the people I know, is that Romney is something they would scrape off of the bottom of their shoe. This will not help.
Subotai Bahadur
OK. That’s my new moniker. Stupid Inbread Stack of Meat. I love that.
And I agree with you about Ritt Momney or whatever his name is.
I hate that Gingrich is taking the low road on this but Ritt MommasBoy had it coming.
Only Gingrich has the tools to defeat Obama in the debates and it is only through the debates that Obama can be defeated. Romney has no chance. Its either Gingrich or four more Obama years.
Remember when Reagan lost the next election in a landslide after he called them “welfare queens”? Neither do I.
The hypocrisy of the pro-Romney anti-Gingrich author takes one’s breath away.
After Mr. Romney spends $12 million in attack ads, he can actually bring himself to publish this: “An unforced error which Newt Gingrich’s folks are happy to dishonestly exploit.”
Mr. Preston, you make Ann Coulter & Jen Rubin blush.
– ear, horn, man.