Even now, Romney just can’t help himself

The Mitt’s Mendacity project ran its course a couple of years ago, and it will not return. But just for old times’ sake, let’s pause to note that the poor guy is still truth-challenged.

Romney, who seems to spend a little too much time thinking about ways to condemn the president who defeated him, has run into trouble once more, this time in an interview with Mark Leibovich. The twice-defeated candidate is apparently still thinking about the “47 percent” video that helped drag down his candidacy.

“I was talking to one of my political advisers,” Romney continued, “and I said: ‘If I had to do this again, I’d insist that you literally had a camera on me at all times” – essentially employing his own tracker, as opposition researchers call them. “I want to be reminded that this is not off the cuff.” This, as he saw it, was what got him in trouble at that Boca Raton fund-raiser, when Romney told the crowd he was writing off the 47 percent of the electorate that supported Obama (a.k.a. “those people”; “victims” who take no “personal responsibility”). Romney told me that the statement came out wrong, because it was an attempt to placate a rambling supporter who was saying that Obama voters were essentially deadbeats. 

“My mistake was that I was speaking in a way that reflected back to the man,” Romney said. “If I had been able to see the camera, I would have remembered that I was talking to the whole world, not just the man.” I had never heard Romney say that he was prompted into the “47 percent” line by a ranting supporter.

No, that’s a new one. It’s also patently false.

Since David Corn first helped shine a light on the infamous “47 percent” video, in which Romney told a group of wealthy donors that nearly half of Americans are lazy parasites, the Republican has struggled to come up with a coherent response. Initially, Romney actually endorsed the sentiments on the video and said they reflected his core beliefs.

He later changed his mind, saying his remarks were “completely wrong” and the result of misspeaking. Later still, Romney switched gears again and said the comments were taken out of context. Now he’s come up with an entirely new explanation: Romney’s not responsible for what Romney said; some guy in the audience deserves the blame.

Ironically, in the video itself, Romney says of struggling Americans, “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility.” Funny, he doesn’t seem to be a big fan of personal responsibility, either.

The facts here are obvious and easily checked.

Romney now believes a rambling supporter caused the trouble, but David Corn checked the video itself and found that’s simply not what happened. The question was actually quite succinct.

To recap: Romney has gone from side-stepping the remark, to owning the thrust of this comment (though noting it was not well articulated), to saying he was wrong, to denying he said what he said (and contending his words were distorted), to claiming he was only mirroring the rambling remarks of a big-money backer. This last explanation is certainly not fair to the 1-percenter who merely expressed his very 1-percentish opinion. Does this mean that Romney was thrown off his game by a simple question – or that he was trying to suck up to a donor? 

In the two years since Romney was caught on tape, he just cannot come up with a clear explanation of an easy-to-understand short series of sentences that were responsive to the question presented. But there is one possible explanation he hasn’t yet put forward: He said what he believed.

Of course he did. Romney was speaking in a relaxed setting, free to say whatever he pleased. He shared his contempt for nearly half the country, which went a long way towards explaining the Romney campaign’s policy platform. Indeed, it’s why the failed Republican candidate immediately responded to the video by saying he agreed with the sentiments it captured. 

 Lying about it now doesn’t help Romney’s case.

Rob Portman Gave Up His Chance To Be Vice President To Protect His Gay Son

According to John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, authors of Double Down: Game Change 2012, Senator Rob Portman (left) asked Presidential candidate Mitt Romney to remove his name from consideration for vice president, because his son, Will, was not ready to come out on a national scale. From the book:

‘Father and son had been talking about going public together for a while, but they wanted to do it on their own timetable.”

Double Down reports that although Will, (left) had come out to his father a year earlier, and was out to his friends at Yale, he did not want to face the country-wide reaction that would surely follow such an announcement. For the sake of his son, Senator Portman asked the Romney campaign to release a statement saying Portman asked not to be considered for VP. But according to Double Down, the campaign refused. They said such a position might make Romney unpopular. (Apparently Will Portman’s feelings were inconsequential to the Romney people.)

Senator Portman threatened the Romney camp, telling them that if chosen for the vice presidential slot, he would immediately come out in support of same-sex marriage. Romney eventually chose Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate.

Ultimately, the senator made a public announcement about Will’s sexual orientation in March of this year, pledging his own support for marriage equality going forward.

Senator Portman was one of several Republican senators who crossed party lines to vote in favor of ENDA, the workplace non-discrimination bill that passed the Senate this week.

Romney Campaign Advisor ‘Vomited’ Backstage After Clint Eastwood’s Disastrous ‘Empty Chair Speech

According to a new book, a top advisor to Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign was so horrified by Clint Eastwood’s bizarre conversation with an empty chair during the RNC — that he physically vomited backstage after the bit was over.

In a review of Double Down: Game Change 2012 by the Washington Post, Romney’s top media advisor Stuart Stevens immediately knew that the performance was destined to seal the already-struggling campaign’s fate.

As advanced copies of the book begin to circulate in Washington, buzz is circulating around many of the juicy leaks that have been revealed, including Romney’s alleged disdain for New Jersey Governor and potential VP choice Chris Christie — and for overweight people in general.

According to the book, the trim former Massachusetts governor cared a great deal about fitness and naturally disliked those who did not.

“Oh, there’s your date for tonight,” he would jokingly tell his male staffers when they spotted a chunky woman on the street, Time Swampland reported.

Obama is portrayed in the book as a shrewd strategist, but someone who had a particular dislike for the technical aspect of politics. The book delves into the alleged tension between Obama and former president Bill Clinton along with Obama’s hands-off approach to mega-donors.

But the Post’s review saves its harshest criticisms for the Republicans:

The real drama of the 2012 campaign unfolded on the Republican side: the Newt-killing, Perry-on-painkillers, 9-9-9, couple-of-Cadillacs theatrics of the Republican primary. After opening with some 80 pages of Obama portraiture, the authors gorge themselves on the hot mess of the GOP race for the next 200 pages. The most enjoyable action plays out among the “Romneyites” (yes, the authors have an annoying habit of sprinkling their text with gnomic nicknames; let this be the last time Rick Santorum is called “Santo”). The Romney campaign’s methodical destruction of Gingrich, first in Iowa and again in Florida, is detailed, as is Romney’s problematic lurch to the right as he fought off a conservative insurgency fronted by Santorum and his sweater vest.

Still Overpriced!!!

Mitt Romney Blames The IRS and Hurricane Sandy For His Loss to Obama

Mitt Romney is still clinging to his skewed polls and claiming that if Hurricane Sandy wouldn’t have hit when it did, and he would have known about the IRS scandal, he would have won the election.

Video:

 
Romney blamed Hurricane Sandy right along with the fact that his 47% comments were off the record for his defeat, “That was not a statement, if you will. It was taken off the record. Nonetheless, it did not reflect my views. I said it didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. But surely, that didn’t help me, and there were other things that didn’t help my campaign either. Obviously, a hurricane with a week to go before the election stalled our campaign.”

CNN’s Gloria Borger asked Romney if he blamed Chris Christie. The former presidential nominee answered by blaming the timing of Hurricane Sandy, “I wish the hurricane hadn’t have happened when it did because it gave the president a chance to be presidential and to be out showing sympathy for folks. That’s one of the advantages of incumbency. But, you know, you don’t look back and worry about each little thing and how could that have been different.”