What’s wrong with what Romney said: from Thurston Howell to pandering

 

You know by now that an unauthorized tape emerged over the weekend of remarks by Mitt Romney at a private fund-raiser in May in which he told the donors that he had no chance of winning the votes of the 47 percent of Americans who pay no income tax because those are people  “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…”
There are so many things wrong here that it’s dizzying. I’ll try to dash off a few of the most dramatic problems.
The reinforcement: Every candidate has some negative elements of his public persona that he needs to overcome. The worst blunders are when the politician reinforces the negatives. Romney’s statement reinforces his negatives nine ways from Sunday.

 The facts. In the age of fact-checking, Romney has developed a reputation for cheating on facts. His campaign staff has unfortunately said on the record that the campaign is not being run for fact-checkers.


Steve Kornacki of Salon takes the incident as evidence that Romney is a “uniquely self-destructive candidate.”
Romney supporter William Kristol of the Weekly Standard calls the Romney remarks “arrogant and stupid,” and works in a parenthetical suggestion that Romney drop out and allow conservatives have the Ryan-Rubio ticket they deserve.


What’s wrong with what Romney said: from Thurston Howell to pandering | MinnPost