As attention shifts from Mitt Romney's private-sector work to his tenure as a one-term governor, the Republican campaign has a challenge: coming up with a compelling explanation for why Romney struggled so badly when applying his business background to government.
Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom was asked late last week, for example, about the former governor's job-creation failures in Massachusetts. He argued Romney inherited a "recession" and an economy that was "losing thousands of jobs every month."
At this point, you might be thinking, "Wait, didn't Obama also inherit a recession and an economy that was hemorrhaging jobs?" And if that is what you're thinking, you'll love the Romney campaign's new press release.
Governor Romney Inherited An Economy That Was Losing Jobs Each Month And Left Office With An Economy That Was Adding Jobs Each Month. After taking office at a time when the state was losing thousands of jobs every month, Governor Romney's focus on fiscal responsibility helped create an environment where job growth returned to Massachusetts. Job growth increased throughout his term....
The same press release takes a cheap shot at a "net" loss in jobs under Obama, which is wildly misleading because it blames the president for job losses that happened before his policies were even tried. But even if we put that aside, if Romney's to be congratulated for inheriting an economy that was losing jobs and then turning things around, by that identical standard, he ought to be patting Obama on the back for a job well done.
Indeed, Obama's campaign team could effectively issue the identical press release, after just swapping out the president's name for Romney's, and changing "state" to "nation."
Given that the fight over job creation and economic growth is central to the entire presidential race, Team Romney's new claim/standard is arguably the most important campaign story of the day. After all, Romney has spent two years arguing that this standard isn't good enough for the president, but apparently it is good enough for himself.
Greg Sargent had a good take on this:
In other words, if we were to apply to Obama the same standard that the Romney campaign wants applied to itself, Obama has created millions of jobs. (Relatedly, Mike Tomasky tried to apply the same standard to both men’s records, and concluded that if you don’t factor in early job loss for either, Obama’s job growth percentage exceeds Romney’s.)
All this is more than just a gotcha. It goes directly to the heart of Romney’s entire case against Obama. The claim that “net” jobs were lost on Obama’s watch is absolutely central to Romney’s whole argument, and the Romney team has repeated it for months and months in every conceivable forum. But the new standard the Romney campaign wants applied to him — i.e., that the focus should be on jobs added after jobs losses were reversed — would seem to completely undercut this entire case.
Jonathan Cohn is thinking along the same lines.
Leave a Comment:
If it wasn't clear before, the Romney campaign is reiterating to the American public:
"We think you're stupid."
At the same time they're telling the media:
"We think you're incompetent."
Are they correct?
Absolutely correct sir ...see below
And, I am concerned that the rest of the voting population...the ones NOT listening to Maddow and MSNBC ARE stupid. I do not understand why on earth anyone seems to be buying any of the Romney stories.
Once you throw out the racists that is...surely the 40% numbers cannot ALL be from racists...some fairly large number of people in this country are hearing exactly what Romney is saying, and buying it. I am confused.
"I do not understand why on earth anyone seems to be buying any of the Romney stories."
Fox CNN NBC CBS ABC
and any AM talk radio show you tune into.
We need a horse race damn it and we're going to get one by god
Consider who OWNS the media. And consider that if they have a "horse race", then untold millions will be spent on TeeVee ADVERTISING.
(Nobody said they were dumb. . .)
7.8% unemployment when he took office, 8.2% unemployment now. A stimulus package big enough to give every tax payer in America $250,000.00 That was just the first stimulus package. We tire that experiment. Now get the government out of the way and lets see how working hard will do.
It was about 2,500 per person, not 250,000. And more than a 3rd was tax breaks.
Well I for one can't wait for the news readers on the evening NOOZE to take time and analyze this point rather than putting up a news clip with no explanation /snark
Dear Mittens,
The US much like the state of Massachusetts is not a Vulture capital firm- profit is not the only raison d'etre, which is why you failed so miserably as Governor. Having you as President, would shift this nation back toward a Civil War, the have's against the have not's - and while you might feel comfortable in your ivory, police guarded tower - you might want to remember all those people clucking about their 2nd Amendment Rights - cause they're locked and loaded.....
And this surprises anyone...how? Romney does this on a daily basis. I'm not sure if he's really that dumb, or he thinks the rest of us are. Maybe both?
I simply can't wait until the presidential debates begin. Romney will be eviscerated on the points of his own lies.
He'll lie straight-faced in any debates, and the press will just supply stenography. They'll mention that Obama disagreed.
I agree, but the ads that will come out in the days following each debate, with video evidence highlighting Romney's contradictory statements, will be the end of him.
This is where the press won't be able to help him anymore.
Romney's lies will get him only so far, then his lies will sink him.
Thirty years of conservative brainwashing to ensure that democrats, liberals and anyone else is dehumanized, made to be evil, stupid and anti-American. Read the opinions of many "conservatives" and they would gladly round up Dems, liberals and progressives and do away with us.
The really sad thing is that the "debates" won't be run in a way that allows Obama to do a Jon Stewart on Mitt: tell the staff to run Clip 42, where Romney contradicts whatever it was Romney just said.
As it is, IMHO it's about time to dust off the "there you go again, Mitt" line.
I agree with you MsJoanne, 30+ years of dumbing down the conservatives, and riling up their hatred of "other" has indeed produced a bunch of ignorant of the facts people. Sad part is these sheeple are so blinded that they continue to vote against their and our best interests.....
The question is: Will the Obama campaign just let it slide? My guess is yes, they'll just let the lies go unchallenged. This is what Democrats do. And that's why they lose to lies. "Medicare cuts," anybody?
Not likely. They're on it already.
http://www.barackobama.com/truth-team
You're right to point out that both men faced roughly similar situations--but in fact the situation Obama faced was much worse: a far more severe recession than what Romney had to contend with, and an opposition party committed to obstruction pretty much at all costs. I think it's important to make these points.
Good points, Chris. Romney has been trying to downplay the severity of what Obama inherited. If he uses this approach in defending his MA record, there is no way people will buy that while not acknowledging that Obama inherited a much worse situation.
By the time the election rolls around, we'll have 32 straight months of private sector job growth and most likely an unemployment rate below 8%. Romney will be making the President's case for him.
Team Romney better come up with a better counter to the attacks on his MA record.
This one ain't gonna work.
Not to mentioned that Romney was also saved by the increase of capital gain taxes in the state legislature which was just enacted before he took office, "closing the loophole" of sales tax for internet purchases, cut over 1.5B in spending for state aid to local city and town which in turn then increase property taxes to their highest in 25 years. And he also created and increased all kind of public service fees (from court filling, marriage licenses, to firearms licenses).
So comparing Romney's inherited problem as Governor and his achievement to President Obama's achievement is like comparing Ann Romney's suffering as a stay at home mom with MS, breast cancer, and $250 spare fund in the bank to my mother-in-law's suffering as a "working" mom with brain and breast cancer raising 2 biological kids and 10 foster kids in $75K/yr of household income (true story).
I always feel like laughing out loud when I see bloggers like Steve so amazed by the gullibility of the voters in the Republican base. Most polls indicate that Americans are about evenly divided on the issues of evolution vrs creationism, and anthropocentric global warming - despite the near unanimous consensus among experts in these fields, not to mention the incredible wealth of information easily accessible to anyone who can afford a computer. And its no secret the overwhelming number of disbelievers in the scientifically established facts regarding these issues are self identified conservatives.
It is not that the 'disbelievers' are anti-science.
It is that (multiple choice):
a) they believe and know that belief outweighs science and fact
b) know that Exxon and the Koch brothers would never lie to them
c) know that Fox Noise and Rushbo would never lie to them
d) are blithering idiots
e) all of the above
There are also a number of otherwise intelligent persons who are willfully ignorant because acknowledging the truth would hurt their investment portfolios.
No, SOV, it's even simpler than that.
Their tribal loyalty trumps other sources of belief. There's serious evidence that this applies to us all, too -- nobody is exempt. However, some tribes are less inclined to adopt extreme litmus tests.
Some gangs force their members to cut their past ties and values by (for instance) random drive-by killings. Others have their initiates shave their heads, subordinate themselves to sadists, subject themselves to physical abuse, wear strange clothing, and chant nonsense while they do it. And some require that their members renounce all sources of information that might contradict the leadership, including basic science.
Given that the fight over job creation and economic growth is central to the entire presidential race, Team Romney's new claim/standard is arguably the most important campaign story of the day.
Anyone care to wager about whether the Corporately Owned Media will completely ignore the comparison? My money is on the Corporately Owned Media (CNN/ABC/NBC/CBS/AP) ignoring the comparison and Faux News finding reason to hype RMoney's claims.
This latest fail by the Romney campaign opens a big door for Obama. Not only can he turn out a very similar press release, but he can also talk about how he has encouraged job growth in the face of unprecedented obstruction from the GOP members of Congress. 300+ Republican filibusters since Obama took office, and a House that has lied in the President's face after swearing to a debt ceiling agreement. Obama played by the rules, and the GOP has done nothing to bully him, and then try to blame him for the same sneaky things they did. The American People will understand this if Liberals make a strong argument.
The American People will understand this if Liberals make a strong argument.
BullSh!t...
The Corporately Owned Media will never present any 'strong' arguments from Liberals as having any validity.
Rupert Murdock, General Electric, Disney, Comcast...
- Which of these Corporations owning the bulk of the Corporately Owned Media will present 'liberal arguments'?
We have had an overreaction to the fantasy called "liberal media". It may be true that compared to conservative theocratic dictatorships, our free speech seems liberal. Yes, Liberty does that. Theocratic dictatorships use fear to coerce the desired behavior of subjects.
We are now being coerced by the corporate owned media that constantly regulates and spins everything to their favor. So of course anything contrary (liberty) to their framing by promoting slanted stories or omitting other stories. I've seen it over and over, nobody can trust a newspaper or other media that buries certain stories, if the publish them at all.
The people need to be constantly aware that media is owned by corporations, corporations now own politicians. They gobbled up from the public trough and they think they can buy it all.
At least the voters should be told who owns which candidate and be allowed to cast their vote based on known sponsorship. Voters should fight against those that think they are entitled to win because they have paid for it. Meg Whitman (billionaire) thought she would win by buying ads with unlimited money. She lost. It's my hope that people will not reward the highest bidders. They think they own government. Let's take it back and tell corporations "we do not want corporations to our make policies". We do not want the same aristocracy we rebelled against. The people are the government. Fight back. The revolutionaries fought back and beat King George. I'm not talking about gun fighting, though. Vote.
We have to be doing more to override the despair, help neighbors get registered and photo I.D. before election day. Talk to folks about the people that are being served by all this prioritizing debt and cutting jobs to combat deficit. A smokescreen to get angry and we still have debt. Only when Republicans have power, they run up debt and cut taxes.That only makes it worse when people are not working, not being taxed, being paid less makes less money to buy stuff.
Getting people to work is the first priority, but cutting jobs cuts spending and revenue, makes things worse. Republicans want to cut spending, meaning people have less money. Like Rachel says when people have money, even the rich do better. We need to get off the anguish and get busy fighting with information and getting neighbors to vote. Looks like we have to get some of the people I.D.s and play the game that wins.
How to get the unwilling to listen is going to be a challenge. We need to see more than cut, cut, cut, scheme, scheme, scheme to make profit out of thin air. We are hypnotized to be in despair and angry by design. The economy will pick up and people will start hiring again. We do not need a President or Congress that wants us to fail with just a few winners.
Wont be long until MSNBC cancels Maddow's show. Her ratings keep dropping because no one wants to listen to an angry, shrill, spinster.
Say it with me, folks!
Yeah, since you're completely wrong and she's one of their best rated people, just go ahead and hold your breath for that.
Spinster??? David, that term went out of style back in the early 50's. Dude, you need to break out your best sweater vest and get out of your mom's basement some weekend for a little catch-up at the nearest singles bar. They have girls there and everything!
cut and paste, cut and paste, cut and paste
Yo david once again go away!!! Educate yourself then come back and start a conversation!!! Growxul!!!