Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is pushing talking points to Republican leaders and top GOP surrogates, urging them to dismiss questions about how Team Romney responded overnight to the violence in Libya and Egypt.
Romney's chief spokesperson struggles to defend the indefensible.
And yet, Romney aides continue to discuss the issue themselves, making their third effort in 17 hours to get this right.
The Romney campaign continues to defend its increasingly isolated response to the Libya consulate attack, claiming that the White House implicitly acknowledged its criticism was accurate by disavowing an earlier statement from the U.S. embassy in Egypt.
"If Gov. Romney 'jumped the gun' why were White House officials also distancing themselves from the statement?" Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement. "Why didn't President Obama take any questions from the press this morning to explain?"
Saul was referring to a statement released Tuesday by the U.S. embassy in Cairo, which said that it "condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims -- as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions." The White House later disavowed that press release and subsequent tweets from the embassy's Twitter account that referred to it were deleted.
It appears the Romney campaign is confused. Perhaps I can help focus matters by asking simple, straightforward questions they can answer at their leisure.
* Does Romney realize that the embassy condemned anti-Muslim propaganda before protests turned violent? If so, why has Romney lied about it?
* Can Romney defend the charge that the "Obama administration's first response" was "to sympathize with those who waged the attacks"?
* Can Romney defend the charge that Obama administration officials "apologized for American values"? If, in Romney's mind, criticizing anti-Muslim propaganda is implicitly the same thing as "apologizing for American values," why did the Romney campaign echo the Obama administration's condemnation of the anti-Muslim propaganda in question?
* If Romney thinks White House officials right to distance themselves from tweets from the Cairo embassy, why does Romney also think White House officials were wrong?
Meanwhile, the Washington Post editorial board, which I think it's fair to say is not exactly liberal, published an item this afternoon saying Romney's rhetoric "discredits his campaign."
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Man what a collection of brain surgeons he has surrounded himself with. Some bold leader and organizer
No Mitt and Co , we are not all inside the fantasy Mitt world
They all are beginning to look like a James Okeefe video
They seem to think the rest of the world will believe their revisionist story if they tell it enough times
Neocon brainless surgeons.
They seem to think the rest of the world will believe their revisionist story if they tell it enough times
Unfortunately, the party has often succeeded in this practice if only in the US.
Another poster has dubbed him, Myth Romney.
That's an apt and accurate nickname for him.
All I can say is, with all that's going on, Thank Goodness our Fundraiser in Chief is here in my town, Las Vegas, to let us know what is really important to a politician.
Someone has to fight the money from the Koch Brothers .
We do what we can to save your future dimbulb.
Las Vegas hmmmmm you one of Sheldon's moneyboys or just another Vegas strip ho
As a personal observation, the heavy dependency on the Secretary of State by this President's response was really quite unnerving. My wife even made the comment while watching Hillary Clinton's speech "She should be our President". I'm not sure if President Obama didn't know how to respond or if he didn't want to be bothered because he was preparing for his Vegas fundraiser.
Who do you want to answer that 2am phone call?
Having the Secretary of State respond first to a State Department issue, showing the world that she is a better choice for leader of the free world than Mr. Romney AND giving Mr. Romney time enough to hang himself publicly again was probably a pretty shrewd political move, don't you think?
God, I hate concern trolls. Much prefer the real ones.
Does Romney realize this was a coordinated terrorist attack, not some he-said/she-said fiasco?
Whaaaat I thought it was a political opportunity . Isn't everything?
Got to go now says Mitt, I am busy writing the Democrats ads for them
The woman who mows my head said today that she thinks Romney is a liar. I was gobsmacked. She's right not exactly right-wing, but she's also not that politically aware. I hadn't really expected the idea that Romney is a liar had penetrated to the moderately-informed. More people than before should be paying attention, so I now have to wonder whether Romney's thing of saying whatever crap he thinks will help him, which has mostly worked for him so far, will actually end up biting him in the ass? I don't have high hopes of that, but if I had been underestimating one person's perceptiveness, I could be underestimating others'. We'll see.
Romney lost the election today by taking sides with white supremacists.
"...in Romney's mind, criticizing anti-Muslim propaganda is implicitly the same thing as "apologizing for American values,"..."
Next time leave off the word "If", then it will be a correct sentence. In GOP land up is down, left is right, and backward is forward.
Criticizing anti-Muslim propaganda is implicitly the same thing as "apologizing for American values" because freedom of speech only applies to right-wing hate speech as so grossly exemplified in the anti-Muslim video. Criticizing antisemitism is anti-American when you are a fascist right-wing separatist.
I have served in the US Navy for 22 years. The US Navy which often is the first responder to diplomatic failures. I would propose that Romney's reaction displays a scary lack of rational judgement. Without facts or consideration for any other ramifications he was under the impression that PRIOR to attacks we should incite violence outside an embassy. Perhaps one of Romney's Super PACs can buy him a dictionary so he can look up the definition of dilpomacy. It rarely starts with the proposition of violence or anger and is never based in a void of factual information. Romney's foreign policy would be a disaster for this country.
I can't really remember if Sisyfos called it quits but it looks like a certain cronicler has some shovelwork waiting....
Often wondered if ever Sisyfos felt like calling it quits. Looks like a certain cronicler has some shovelwork waiting for him.
Romney keeps shooting from the hip. We don't need another cowboy in the White House. The last one turned out not so good.
Maybe the GOP would like to trade Romney in for Huntsman at this point?
The GOP would like to trade Mr. Romney for any racehorse available at this point. It would have more horse sense and a backbone you can find. The real problem is not Mr. Romney, however. The GOP is held hostage by the Tea Party, Grover Nordquist, Rush Limbaugh, etc. Those 'lawmakers' elected and supported by them must also lose November 6 so that they cannot hold this NATION hostage like they have for the last two years.
Many have probably see Andrea Saul in action , I saw andrea mitchel point out how FACTS did not back her claims 3 times at the end of a segment , this ditto head just kept repeating the same lie any way , then threw in 2 more as mrs mitchell was trying to close , the romney campaign is fruit loops , he IS mr sarah palin
I thought Mitt liked to fire people. Why is Andrea Saul still employed - to remind Romney of the definition of inept?
I was fully expecting her to blurt out "He's an appeaser"
Andrea Saul is only as good as her material. I pity her right now and look forward to some significant resignations from the Romney campaign in the next few weeks. Self-respecting people can only take so much.
I thought Mittens was done when he admitted that the economy is getting better. Now he's just flat out over-cooked. I can't wait to see him go for charred embers. This is getting pretty entertaining.
Absolutely f*cking beautiful. Watching Hardball with Tweety Matthews. Has on Howard Fineman and Mark Halperin. Halperin looks like he wants to cry while he attempts to defend Mitten's behavior. Of course, has to have some 'both sides do it'.
LMAO!!!!
I'll catch the rerun@ 7
Halperin! said with the same disdain as Seinfeld reserved for Newman!
Halperin voted #1 Hack @ Salon 2011. I don't know if 2012 is out yet
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/16/1_mark_halperin/
Whenever Salon dorks its software I post on NewsVine until they straighten it out.
"Damn spot!" Shakespeare
This is serious and it will not go away.
This is serious, but I expect it will go away. This will soon be lost under the next Romney train wreck. He still has 8 fun weeks to go.
A predictable & fairly despicable man.
Must have gotten his sacred garments (long underwear) in a bunch.
The only time he & his sons have ever been in harms way was when Romney evaded Vietnam service by trying to stop the French from drinking wine. Hard to tell who has less courage - Romney or Cheney. GW refused to fight but at least he served.
Chicken hawks thy favorite roost is spelled GOP.
17 out of 24 of his foreign policy advisors are the same gang of failures that got us into Iraq - & are still looking for those pesky invisible WMD.
Good grief first they give us cowpatty 41 and 43 and now they want to drop, the bare-footing through the field so he can feel the warm cow dung squeezing between his toes ,Romney.Gotta be them thar 'shrooms those tea "partiers are picking.
Vin Weber, a Romney pollster who was on Talk of the Nation today to "balance" Anna Greenberg (who is not an official pollster or advisor to Obama) was sure as hell pushing those talking points today. Even before the Kos story confirmed it, it was so obvious, it made me throw up in my mouth a little. Because that's what all Republicans, from top campaign surrogates down to insignificant trolls on liberal websites do. They download the Inner Party's official talking points from the telecsreen then they duckspeak them back out like automatons.
A predictable & fairly despicable man.
Must have gotten his sacred garments (long underwear) in a bunch.
The only time he & his sons have ever been in harms way was when Romney evaded Vietnam service by trying to stop the French from drinking wine. Hard to tell who has less courage - Romney or Cheney. GW refused to fight but at least he served.
Chicken hawks thy favorite roost is spelled GOP.
17 out of 24 of his foreign policy advisors are the same gang of failures that got us into Iraq - & are still looking for those pesky invisible WMD.
Mitt Romney hates his country. Mitt Romney must hate America if he would willingly and gleefully release statement after statement denouncing our president and questioning our military and state department professionals bravely serving in the line of fire at a time of great danger and unrest. The families of those killed and the thousands of other brave men and women serving the interests of our nation abroad need and deserve our respect and a unified front to get through this tragic period. Mitt Romney has driven a stake through the heart and soul of America with his unskilled and ill-conceived response to these events. It makes you wonder what side Mr. Romney is on in this fight. - principled progressive
The money side. He's worried his billions won't last through retirement, what with the 7 houses, the payments on that garage elevator, Ann's couple a' Cadillacs need updating, the kids all wanting Ivy League schools on their resumes, and the wife flying off to Paris every month to get her contraceptive prescription filled...
Mitt Romney has driven a stake through the heart and soul of America with his unskilled and ill-conceived response to these events.
Read Romney's 2008 concession speech, he has been singing the same tune for years and always will no matter what, it's the only one he knows. Democrats will surrender to terrorists, sure they will, get a life fool.
Mr. Romney loves this country because it is the only one on that will let him earn his millions the way he does. It is the people (the ones he gets his millions from and serve in the military to protect his right to make them) he has no time for. If we cannot afford it, we can do without healthcare, education, safe food, a clean environment, safe roads, a banking system we can trust, peace in our time - the list goes on and on. Fortunately, he can only enjoy pretending to lead this country ONLY IF SOMEONE VOTES FOR HIM. After this episode, that will be a long and fruitless search.
Romney does not love this country, he is an agent of international capitalism that seeks to provoke national bankruptcy with tax cuts and then civil unrest and secession to form a fascist New Confederacy ruled by the rich.
This AP photo of Rmoney walking backstage after his remarks, which were remarks in the poorest sense, tells it all: https://twitter.com/CharlesDharapak/status/245893711257563136/photo/1
Is it wrong that I want to knock his teeth in?
Should I am for the balls instead?
Seriously, that is the face of a true sociopath. He's trying to turn a international-relations disaster into a personal advantage, and he he so obviously thinks he's being oh-so clever. The supercilious smirk says it all.
No, it isn't wrong to want to knock his teeth in, just to do it.
Seeing him on any forum has become as sickening as being forced to see (or hear) Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and
SorryPalin. I'm beginning to think there isn't a functional brain in the Republican Party - unless you merge all of them together, in which you would have about half a brain.Of course that is only my opinion.
Is it wrong that I want to knock his teeth in?
They want you to feel that way, they are trying to provoke civil war, you feel it too.
How about holding him down and giving him a haircut?
Only if I get to use the scissors, and on condition that the hair being cut isn't necessarily on his head.
I was going to say this is turning into a guilty pleasure, but I don't feel guilty at all.
Mitt Romney & Foreign Policy?
Strictly Bush League
Mitt never has had to feel others' pain. He is a opportunist and a liar. I would love to have him actually feel a' pee your pants' moment of fear before he casually sends people off to die on a foreign shore.
The only thing that matters to Romney is his religion and his money. That's it. That's the length, breadth and depth of this man who is as poor an excuse for a human being I've ever seen in the public political arena.
Let me take a stab at being a Romney surrogate...
Yes, he realizes that at this time, but when we released the statement, the Embassy's release appeared to have had clearance by the White House.
That statement was in error. The Obama administration's first response was to distance themselves from the Embassy's release - a move we agree with. Unfortunately, he again condemned the right to free speech in his remarks this morning when he, acting in his capacity as the head of our government, condemned a citizen's right to publish works of his choosing
See the above response. The Obama administration - acting in its capacity as the head of our government - condemned the constitutionally protected right to free speech of a citizen of the United States of America. We - acting in our capacity as free citizens who have no responsibility as governing officials - are free to disagree and condemn the citizen's use of his protected right to free speech. We are in no way - implicitly or explicitly advocating taking that right away from any citizen even if we disagree with what they have to say.
See the above responses. They were correct to distance themselves from the original Embassy statement. They were incorrect to condemn the free speech of a citizen of these United States - whom these same officials are supposed to acting in the best interests of.
Wow, that was amazingly easy... Too bad they will never use this line of attack - it leaves open the possibility of not demonizing your opponent when they say something you disagree with...
Best keep your day job, @BigJayNJ.
Saul is an idiot but I would like to know why the administration felt the need to so strongly distance itself from the embassy's perfectly reasonable statement.
BullshMitt Romney is the most pathetic excuse for a presidential candidate to come along in a long, long time, and Lyin' Paul Ryan and his desire to turn America into a theocracy make him one of the most disconcerting v.p. candidates to come along since brain-dead Sarah Palin.
Kinda makes you wish we had Dan Quayle back, don't it? At least it was FUN to point out his stupidity - this crowd is too dangerous.