I'll have a more detailed take on Mitt Romney's speech in D.C. this afternoon a little later, but there was one claim in particular that's worth special scrutiny.
Romney argued today that President Obama's campaign strategy is to "re-elect him so we can find out what he will actually do." The likely Republican nominee added, "With all the challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for President Obama's hide and seek campaign.... Unlike President Obama, you don't have to wait until after the election to find out what I believe in -- or what my plans are."
I don't expect much from Romney, but this one managed to amaze me.
Let's revisit what Romney told the Weekly Standard last week.
"One of the things I found in a short campaign against Ted Kennedy was that when I said, for instance, that I wanted to eliminate the Department of Education, that was used to suggest I don't care about education," Romney recalled. "So I think it's important for me to point out that I anticipate that there will be departments and agencies that will either be eliminated or combined with other agencies....So will there be some that get eliminated or combined? The answer is yes, but I'm not going to give you a list right now."
Romney's answer goes a long way to explain why some conservatives have been reluctant to embrace his candidacy. They want a list. They want it to be long, they want it to be detailed, and they want a candidate who is not only willing to provide one but eager to campaign on it.... That's not Mitt Romney. It never will be.
In other words, Romney could talk in detail about his post-election intentions, but he chooses not to. Why? Because voters might not like the truth, so the former governor believes it's better to hide it from them. Americans are supposed to vote for Romney first, then discover what he'd do in office. Thanks to the Etch A Sketch, even the vague commitments Romney is making now may be discarded before November.
Remember, his remarks to the Weekly Standard came just last week. This week, Romney's saying that Obama is guilty of playing Romney's "hide and seek" game.
The former governor is taking the whole "rubber/glue" strategy to depths I hardly thought possible.
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eh. not so surprising -- just what is now the standard Rove-trained operating procedure of projecting your weaknesses onto your opponent early and often, truth be damned.
hopefully, if they have any skills at all, the Democrats -- having now seen this playbook for 3 prior cycles -- have developed an effective counter-strategy.
Didn't "Dog on Car" say he didn't want to tell the people what his plans are before he gets voted in because they wouldn't vote for him?
Not surprising from the Etch-a-sketch candidate! Frankly the GOP on both state & federal levels have been showing US what they will do, and it's nothing, absolutely nothing except rolling US back to the "Gilded Age" where the wealthy robber barons rode on the backs of THE PEOPLE!!
The GOP is just soooooo wrong for working Americans!
It seems to me like Romney and Santorum are taking the approach of identifying their own shortcomings, and then accusing Obama of those shortcomings. I would guess they call this approach the "The Smokescreen Effect."
Perhaps the only voter fraud that will be committed this next November will be committed by voters who end up voting for Mitt Romney thinking they are voting for a real person! -Kevo
Sadly as you point out in your book, the republicans never let facts get in their way. Romney sounds like he wants to run the country like a private equity firm. Consolidate, reduce overhead, make profit, get out and move on. Not the way to run a country in my opinion.
This is called pulling a Scott Walker. You don't talk about something during the election, but once in office you pull a major coup out of thin air - be it unions or whatever the Kochs command you to do.
Beat me to it ..same here in Florida with Lets Get to Work Rick Scott (his slogan), who failed to mention it was Lets get to Work doing drug tests on State employees and welfare recipients so we can disenfranchise them. Lets get to Work dismantling government and privatizing its functions so my Corporate campaign contributors get rich. Lets get to Work underfunding public schools so that they perform so poorly I have an argument for privatization.
They all went to the same Lying sack-o-sh*t University, Republican U
Oh and by the way he also rejected 24 Billion in High Speed Rail money ...no jobs there
Romney's comments about eliminating agencies, but not saying which is to be eliminated is a central part of the Koch Brothers Americans for Prosperity agenda. In the last two years, state and local governements have implemented the AFP "leaner, smarter government" theme of the 2010 elections. Jobs in the public sector have fallen dramatically since then, while jobs in the private sector have increased by the millions. Why do the Koch Brothers and Romney promote "leaner, smarter government"? 1) To prevent government from enforcing laws that people like the Koch Brothers do not want to have enforced and 2) to force governments to sell assets and to outsource services to corporations like those the Koch Brothers own . Romney has been persuaded to adopt these positions. Notice that he made a major speech at the Americans for Prosperity conference early in the year and his famed speech in a near empty football stadium in Michigan had the AFP banner in the background. Compare what Romney says with the AFP agenda -- identical.
But the saddest thing is the blatant stupidity. "I know he's been President for three years, but just wait - he's hiding his true plans" Yes, that's right. Everyone who becomes president, one of the most powerful offices in the world, one that only 43 people have held, spend their entire first term waiting on that all-powerful second term, because that's when they can really do things.
The kindly old GOP elephant has morphed into a combination, vulture, rat. hyena, and weasel. Some remain reptiles while others are spineless, leaving a slime trail from state to state. My apologies to the animal kingdom.
Will any mainstream pundit have the guts to call Romney out for being the "marvelous" liar and huckster that he is?
It's only April and the general election is only getting started, but I already hate Romney's guts. He has a way of bringing out the worst in people.
this is why your CHRONICLES OF MITT'S MENDACITY column doesn't need to skip a week.
I hope to see it on FRIDAY.
Looks to me like Romney has a pretty good plan there: start off the bat accusing Obama of all of the Romney's own sins. That way the accusation itself becomes at best imitative and at worst can be called projection.
Romney thinks he is going to skate through the elections with ambiguous statements. It is up to the media to force him to clarify those statements with facts and details. No media network outside of Fox should allow Mitt to use their programs for electioneering if he won't commit to details. The programs should be pretaped and if Mitt fails to cooperate, then his appearance should be edited out of the program thereby depriving him of media coverage. The same rules should be applied to all politicians. If they want to be glib, then no media coverage.
Romney claims to know how the economy work's.His economy looks something like this. Draw some $1,000 bills on an Etch A Sketch,now shake it up real good. Where did the money go? It went to The Cayman Islands.Now do the same thing,shake it up, where did the money go this time? It went into his Swiss bank account. A tax dodger that wants to be president,is that the way the system is supposed to work?No but thats Romney's idea of how it works.Voters made big mistakes in 2010 hopefully they will be rectified.
Steve, where do you think he got the phrase "hide and seek" campaign from? It's obviously something that they've been discussing in regards to the kind of criticism he's just drawn for his "secret plan to end the war" nonsense.
These guys are maroons!
I'm afraid most of the readers are too young for the Nixon reference.
These people we speak of here, the vast majority never got past high school. That's not to say they didn't go on to pro forma schooling.
The last time that they had to read a textbook and stand the scrutiny of an exam was the 12th grade. Since then, they've gotten by using bold statements and blatant pandering.
These people are dumber than rocks and as useless as a sack of clawless hammers. They know this about themselves and therefore, in short, they work ever-harder every day to convince YOU that they are only slightly-brighter than yourself.
I'll take an Obama ANYDAY over any and all of these mental-cripples running against him.
In short, each of them is beholden to the money behind them, ...-and the public be damned.
The only reason that people think this possibly could be an even slightly effective attack is because we know that the MSM loves to jump on any equivalency, no matter how false.
That keeps them in good graces with both sides and helps them maintain their access.
With a brave, principled and honest media, Romney would not even attempt this.
THAT is the really sad part.