Romney tried his hand this morning at smearing with a smirk.
It's been largely forgotten, but in the spring, there was a difficult diplomatic incident involving Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. While delicate negotiations were underway, Mitt Romney jumped in, condemned U.S. officials during their tense diplomatic talks with China, and blasted the "day of shame for the Obama administration."
Soon after, the criticisms looked ridiculous, and even Bill Kristol said Romney appeared "foolish." The Republican candidate, unconcerned with the international implications, thought it'd be smarter to attack first, then get the facts, and then think it through.
Sound familiar?
When a campaign is struggling and starts to feel as if defeat is likely, the candidate and his or her aides start getting antsy, wondering how to shake things up. It's a dangerous dynamic -- the desperation starts clouding judgments, leading to unnecessary risks that do far more harm than good.
Romney's decision to attack President Obama over Guangcheng fits the model, but the smear involving violent mobs in Libya and Egypt is worse -- not only is it practically a textbook example of a gamble gone horribly awry, but it's unfolding in the campaign's final stretch.
The inexperienced Republican, whose campaign dismissed foreign policy as a "distraction" on 9/11, has managed to look craven, dishonest, and incompetent, all at the same time. Worse, Team Romney managed to pull off this trick twice -- once last night, then again this morning.
Romney's Democratic critics haven't even had to say much, with mainstream pundits issuing many of the most notable condemnations. Even Peggy Noonan, speaking on Fox News, conceded this morning, "I don't feel that Mr. Romney has been doing himself any favors in the past few hours."
Ben Smith reported that a variety of Republicans are equally disappointed. "They were just trying to score a cheap news cycle hit based on the embassy statement and now it's just completely blown up," said a very senior Republican foreign policy hand, who called the statement an "utter disaster" and a "Lehman moment."
Josh Marshall had a good piece on this, arguing that Romney is proving that he's simply "not ready" for the presidency.
Romney's attack was not only ill-judged and ill-timed, it was actually based on what appears to be a demonstrable falsehood. Romney, or folks writing in his name at his campaign, claimed that the administration's first response to the attacks was to issue a press release condemning the anti-Islam film which had helped trigger the attack. This they picked wholesale from the right-wing blogosphere.
In fact, according to all available press reports and the account of the State Department, the press release in question came from the US Embassy in Egypt and preceded the attacks. So to claim it was a response to the attacks was simply false. So while American diplomats were dying in the field, Romney pops up with an egregious attempt to politicize the deaths with a flat out lie.
Behind the curtains a more chaotic and rash picture emerges.
The statement from the Romney campaign was initially released by Romney press secretary Andrea Saul at 10:09 PM -- but under an embargo until midnight on September 12th. In other words, it was embargoed until September 11th was over.
Then a few minutes later at 10:24 PM the embargo was lifted and reporters were told they could use the statement immediately. There was no clear explanation of the change.
Bear in mind, this was all happening while attacks on US personnel abroad were ongoing.... The campaign also authorized Romney's top foreign policy advisor to give a blistering interview attacking the president while the attacks were continuing.
Romney could have begun the process of putting this right this morning, but instead, after falling into a hole, he decided to keep digging.
I don't know if Romney will be elected president in eight weeks, but I do know crude incompetence to this degree is exceedingly rare in national politics.
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The people pouring money into Romney's campaign must be sick. Grover's big plan of having someone with only enough workable digits to sign bills placed in front of him has been a big failure. You need more than workable digits to get elected. I'm willing to bet Willard has just lost this election and will only get enough scraps to keep him afloat for the rest of the campaign. And I'm willing to bet you will see the money going heavily into state and Congressional campaigns now.
Apparently, so does campaigning...
That was Mrs. Obama at the DNC
So does the team you assemble to get you elected .
Nice choices there Mr. Bain -I-ran-a-big-company-and-know-how-to-manage-people- Romney
They make the keystone cops look organized.
Let's not forget, he was never the front-runner in the Primaries until his money out-lasted all the other unelectable goofballs, making him the last man standing.
I immediately thought of Willard's previous foreign policy faux pas, but couldn't remember exactly what it was about and when it happened. Thanks for the reminder!
Between the blunder in the spring and now last night and today's melt-downs, plus the trip to Europe that was supposed to cement his foreign policy expertise, things aren't looking promising for Willard. His foreign policy has been cemented all right. It's going straight to the bottom.
In comparison, Willard makes Sarah Palin look like an intellect.
Now that's going too far. It's simply not possible to be worse than Sarah "the quitter" Palin. Mr. Romney merely makes her look like his equal (because she *is*).
Waiting for RW trolls to blame the liberal media for these gaffes in 5......4.......3
The photo that is posted with this article...Damn, that looks just like W's smirk.
Some campaigns involve planning and contingencies, some don't.
For example, I remember Ike telling Winston, "Ahh, we'll just run the boats up on the beaches, and let the fellas take it from there."
Day, it is like having a ring side seat on watching an unstable star. 2010 was red giant stage. Today we could be seeing the instabilities prior to the collapse to a demographic white dwarf. The right has consumed the 2010 energy and the energy pushing the extremities no longer have the force to hold back the substantial political gravitational forces. The surfaces of the private worlds the independents live in have been scorched by the heat of the right wing extremism.
The question is, where will this end up? Theoretically the GOP star could fragment, but the first to split off would be the Libs, but they seem content to stay put despite their humiliation.
Red star - white dwarf: spot on. Thank you.
John
I was thinking Red Dwarf. At least it was funny and not Romney trying to advantage of a tragic situation.
Myth Romney (was that a photoshopped Myth who gave the RNC speech a few weeks ago?) can only be viewed as saying what he believes from that old 'snap' of him putting his money where his brain is.
Like to see some clever fun of Fox and Rush? Check out fox-rot.com!
I imagine there are more than a few willing to help Mitt dig the hole. If he was not so dangerous and the situation so tragic this would all be amusing. I love the sound of air oozing out of a windbag.
Romney is in a box so far to the right that he can't make a statement like "you can't make a film that insults 1.5 billion Muslims and not expect a backlash." He willfully bought into his pathetic situation. Just pathetic.
I've just finished viewing Romney's press conference. There are no words to describe watching the guy who internationally embarrassed the US this summer trying to lecture Pres. Obama on foreign policy.
Actually, I think this is what happens when you have a lot of money and "yes men" around you - you begin to believe that you are a "Master of the Universe", just remember Dubya - his hubris, his sarcasm, his unintelligible snark; Mittens suffers from the same disease.
And if this is what he's like as a "candidate", then I'm sure it'll be ever so much worse if he's "President".
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012!
Just another example of Romney''s case pf premature ejerkulation!
Myth only seems able to talk in a reasonable way when he has money on hand such as that famous "snap" of him and his monied buddies.
Want to see some clever fun at the expense of Fox and Rush? Check out fox-rot.com
Willard shamelessly politicizing an event with a demonstrable lie? Say it isn't so!!!
/snark
There are still too many people who think Mittens is best for jobs and the economy and don't care about foreign policy. Even those in his National Guard audience on 9/11 were more concerned about jobs.
We Dems can't get complacent about Mittens being defeated. Our efforts to bolster the Down ticket Dems will need renewed attention as well.
Yet another example of Romney's case of Premature Ejerkulation!
Some people (I know, straw man) have argued that Romney doesn't want to be President so much as he wants to be President of the Mormon Church (MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY!!!).
Running for President of the US might help those odds, but if he were to become President of the US, he couldn't be President OF THE Mormon Church for at least FOUR whole years (but...but MONEY!)
Were that to be true, then what we're seeing is like a higher-stakes global-implication version of the Mel Brooks movie The Producers, where Mitt has to keep acting like he wants to run the nation, but also has to screw it up so he doesn't get it, BUT keep acting like he's not trying to screw it up so as to sully his reputation, to get what he really wants (MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY!!!).
Gotta admit, it puts a whole lot of his eff-ups in perspective, doesn't it?
I've often wondered if Romney's goal all along was to boost his speaking fees. Remember, he was making ONLY $300,000 or so a year.
He's due for his 40,000 mile check up and lube. His programming is short circuiting. He can't even answer simple questions. That lengthy brain fart in the press conference was so uncomfortable...didn't know if he'd start talking again or stay frozen like that.
You know, I honestly can't think of a moment when Romney has sounded off on a foreign policy issue since 2006 where he wasn't either displaying catastrophic ignorance of the basic facts, committing a gross diplomatic faux paux or or demonstrating a demonstrating an absolutely disqualifying lack of character. I really can't. And most of the time, he manages to do all three at the same time.
I've been watching this guy's foreign policy announcements with growing alarm for years because without exception, he's always goes way beyond George W. Bush levels of indifferent ignorance.
Instead, Romney's foreign policy ignorance is pretty much the same as Palin's ignorance dressed in patrician clothes. Too shamelessly ignorant to realize the depth of his ignorance and a complete indifference to the need to remedy it. A deeply held belief that reflexive bluster and bellicosity are all he needs to bluff his way through an interview. A venal, but pathetically shallow, opportunism that invariably backfires on him because his attempts always end up exposing the fact that he doesn't even know enough about the situation to do a competent job of cynically exploiting it for domestic political benefit.
There are people who are interested in foreign affairs and there are people who aren't, and it all comes down to whether you're interested in history. A lot of times people who thought they weren't become interested if they have a halfway decent teacher to kickstart it, and they can often get up to speed within a few years if they really work at it. But if you aren't, and if you refuse to become even minimally competent even while embarking upon a decade long plan to become president, you really, really, really have no business running.
There are two types of ambassadors: The ones who toil for years in the trenches, learning the arcane 'striped trouser' lingo of Foggy Bottom, and rise to become Ambassador to Someplace Important.
And then there are the campaign donors who get the prize job at some pleasant little country.
Mitt falls into the second category.
It's very sad that Romney's foot-in-mouth moment(s) seems to have over-
shadowed the tragedy of the loss of lives. I am almost speechless at this jerks
opportunistic and craven acts; he has even gotten Andrea Mitchell pissed all to
hell at him. Are his advisors as stupid as he is or does he refuse to listen to them?
His 3 a.m. phone call has come and gone: he gets an F-.
What McCain showed four years ago was that he had neither the economic knowledge nor the emotional steadiness to deal with the financial crisis.
Romney just demonstrated the same lack of knowledge and preparedness. He clearly doesn't understand geopolitics, is culturally insensitive, and is oblivious to the nuances of foreign policy. But just as appallingly, this minor but revealing situation shows his lack of foresight and timing.
Mitt is just the type whose poor approach could cause minor flare-ups to blow up into full-fledged crises. Not that the neo-cons surrounding him would be unhappy about that.
Respected world leaders move aggressively when necessary, but carefully and cautiously when the situation allows. This attack calls for the latter approach.
Obviously, one of these people has the skills and bearing to be on the world stage at critical moments. Then there's Romney, who clearly doesn't.
I'd also like to add that Romney states at the press conference that the President is responsible for all statements issued from anywhere in his administration, but when Romney was listed as the sole proprietor, sole owner, and all around Grand Poohbah of Bain Capital after 1999, he would have us give him a pass for anything the company did in his name during that time, because he was "retroactively retired." ~~~ You just can't make this stuff up.
That one left a mark!
What strikes me about the reaction to Romney's blunder is where the criticism is coming from. Often it is the blogs that point out factual discrepancies and level criticism, and one wonders if guys like Halperin and Todd even hear the truth. Ryan gets disassembled for straight up lies, yet the village insiders still think of him as an idea man. But the insiders are leading the charge today.
This could color the way they cover and discuss Romney. Once they get an idea in their heads about a candidate, everything else starts to go through that prism. Gore is wooden; Kerry is effete; Bush would be fun to have a beer with; McCain is a maverick, even as he is being led around on a short leash by the far right.
Throwing this in with the weekend miscues, Romney appears deeply incompetent. If that is how he becomes seen by guys like Halperin and Todd, the Obama bounce will become the Obama cushion.
These shoot-from-the-lip, ill-timed remarks are not just politically inept or foolish. They put the lives of Americans working in the international field at risk, and should simply not be done. The politicizing of these deaths is just beyond disgusting, and makes it obvious the Romney people don't know what they're doing, which is understandable, because neither does he!
Article is spot on!...
Besides Romney's comments being inappropriate...add the words...lack of discipline... desperate... This guy blew it again....God forbid if he really became Commander in Chief...We would probably be at war with someone within the first 100 days of his Presidency!
If this incident happened on his watch he would probably be sending bombs to Libya and Egypt instead of Marines to the consulates and embassies.