I sympathize with some of what these Romney aides are saying simply because such a big deal was made by most Romney surrogates about his competence and leadership abilities during the campaign. If he was such an awful candidate — which he wasn’t — why the trashing of his campaign by so many now?
Romney’s post-election fall is partly his own making. The notion that the primary reason he lost was due to “gifts” given out by President Obama to various constituencies prior to the election was insulting and demeaning and he was rightly criticized for saying it.
But the piling on done by some GOP heavyweights is curious, given their apparent interest in serving in a Romney administration if he had won.
Former senior aides to Mitt Romney have hit back at the ‘craven hypocrites’ in the Republican party who just days before the election were clamouring for jobs in a Romney administration and are now belittling him.
‘I’m sure Governor Romney is finding out now who his real friends are,’ a former adviser told MailOnline.
‘There were one or two well-known figures who were late committing to support him, were the most eager to curry favour when it looked like we would win and are now out there trashing the governor.
‘In politics, when you win you are a genius and when you lose everyone calls you an idiot. But to see the way certain craven hypocrites are acting right now really sticks in the craw.’
Speaking on MSNBC, Dan Senor, a former top foreign policy adviser to Romney, accused some of the former Massachusetts supporters of being fair weather friends.
At a big event in Ohio just days before the election, he said, there were leading figures cozying up to Romney and trying to land cabinet positions.
‘Tens of thousands of people, you could feel the energy, a hundred top-tier Romney surrogates were at the event,’ he remembered. ‘I’m backstage with some of them – I won’t mention their names – but they’re talking about Romney like he’s Reagan.
[...]
The anonymous adviser said: ‘Bobby Jindal wanted very, very much to be Vice President. He appeared publicly with Governor Romney after the 47 per cent comments, which the governor himself said were totally wrong.
‘Newt Gingrich made it clear to us he wanted to be part of a Romney administration.
‘Both these guys – and others – were the governor’s best friend when it seemed he was on the brink of becoming our 45th President. Now they’re calling him a bum. Real profiles in courage.’
Gingrich especially has been shameless in his criticism of Romney. To go from supporting a candidate with no reservations to calling him “nuts” as Gingrich did on a Sunday talk show following the election smacks of currying favor with the mainstream press by viciously attacking one of their targets.
To paraphrase Churchill, politicians have no permanent friends, only permanent ambitions. Being a slave to the latter does not allow room for many of the former.
Ehhhh, not so sure I agree with ALL of this. Jindal was correct to say what he did, but what he actually said was packaged far more harshly by the ever obedient MSM. As for Gingrich, surely he realized there were more than 2 positions available in a Romney administration. It was always my secret fantasy that Newt be named Chief of Staff:), a position, usually with far greater power than VP.
Romney lost for a variety of reasons. I think he was a wonderful candidate saddled with a crap campaign staff and too nice of a guy to do anything about it. Voter fraud and a complicit media doing damage control for 18 months.
This is why politicians won’t be the solution. For example–the Orange County GOP is apparently just about ready to abandon everything to avoid being annihilated in a Hispanic wave. Which means abandoning their original support base for a media-favored one, and one that will probably not support them back anytime soon, not seeming to care enough yet for the values of yeomanry, but happy if the caudillo smiles upon them every so often.
What is needed are men not ambitious for office, but victory.
Newt Gingrich is an opportunist of the worst sort. Surely people remember him on that couch with Nancy Pelosi.
Here is my all-time #1 example of Newt’s disloyalty.
Right after Hurricane Katrina he was on Fox saying that “what we need is a Marshall Plan for the Gulf Coast.” (This would, of course, mean massive amounts of federal money sent to the affected states.)
Well, Congress DID send massive amounts of money to the area. And of course 10 months later we had all the stories of waste, fraud, and outright theft. And Newt was on Fox again commenting, whereupon he said, “This is what you get when the federal government does something like this. It should have been handled by the private sector.”
The only common thread between these 2 points of view which are 180 degrees opposite is that in both cases it allowed him to criticize George Bush on national television.
why the trashing of his campaign by so many now?
Obvious: because he lost.
Also the way he lost, an invisible, negative, rich-man-entitled campaign that failed to engage on ideas, gave no reason for ANY voter to support him other than his biography, and THEN it turned out his technicians TOTALLY MISREAD the turnout to such an extent that one has to worry that they were faking it the entire time, not to mention ORCA the fail whale.
Then on TOP of that after the fact he starts with the “gift-giving” thing which is sour grapes, whether it’s right or wrong or both or neither. His complaining about the surrogates now, is more bad form on Romney’s part. It is gonna happen in any case. Shrug and take it like a man.
Every time Romney opens his mouth, he proves himself an empty suit and reinforces every bad thing anyone ever accused him of in his professional life. In his personal life he may be a lot sweeter than he looks, but that counts for little in getting votes.
I concurr.. Romney was no Conservative, let alone a Ronald Reagan, for whom was he denounced and disassociated himself from, as a liberal Mass Republican Establishment RINO. The GOP got their man elected as the Nominee and what did they do, they went out of their way to attack, demean, and marginalize the Conservative base, aka the grass roots Tea Party Reagan Conservatives every chance they could, and refuse to let Conservatives have any voice and say, and become part of his Campaign team.. This was the Rove GOP Establishment team in charge, believing they couldn’t lose, so their attitude was- they didn’t need us, just like during the Primaries..
All of that did little to stir up Conservatives, who are the backbone of the Republican party, for which they hate and loathe, more than Obama and the Terrorists..
They just don’t care.. That’s why we must get rid of every RINO we can.. and replace them with Conservatives in key leadership positions.
Mitt did not specifically blame the gift recipients in his comments.
He blamed the handing out of “gifts” as a substitues for policy discussions. He blamed the pandering and the bait-and-switch of “but the Republicans don’t understand you. He blamed the “and look, a shiny” campaign of the opposition and he almost praised that campaign’s salemsanship.
He should have been pounding home these points for the last 2-3 months of the campaign, telling ALL Americans that they were being lied to, mis-led, being treated as dumb by the opposition, over and over.
And then told ALL Americans WHY this was so and what the cures actually entail.
You cannot take the fight to the enemy after the battle is lost, and his team carefully avoided these truths in an effort to appeal to moderates.
He needed and his actual campaing needed to mirror these points that were all over conservative media for a long time, and not rely on new media to reach where his campaign should have been takng the fight. He had a bully pulpit since the end of the primary season and he should have been as outspoken as some of his surrogates. Instead he was always “held back”, (don’t appear mean) leave that to Sununu, to others.
Even now, the “political operatives” are considering themselves as somehow above the fray, to protect their professional objectivity and they just come off as clueless.
Americans are tough, they deserve the truth, and they know it when they hear it.
The electorate, ALL of the electorate, deserved to hear this for the last few months, not after the campaign was over.
Far too much criticism is being pointed at the candidate and not near enough at the constituency who once again voted for abject failure and hucksterism. The fact this election was even close, much less lost, is an indicator of what really ails America.
So Moran? You think Romney’s “gifts” comment was inappropriate? Well then, smart guy. Why don’t you tell us exactly what is inaccurate about that statement? Because once again, a rash of outrageous promises based on lies and a campaign of personal destruction carried out by a corrupt and complicit media won this election.
Want an example of how stupid the American constituency is? “We can’t return to the same policies that got us into this mess…”
So Romney was going to institute massive credit default swaps as his economic foundation?
Frankly, I find fat boy, arm chair quarterbacks like you, Mr. Moran, half of what is wrong with the country. Too scared to admit the truth because you want to appear “moderate” and intelligent.
You’re neither. What you are is clueless and gutless.
– Rick is writin’ today: What is this? PJMoran?!
I don’t know much about Jindal but Gingrich is not to be trusted as far as I am concerned. He is all about Gingrich and nothing else.