Whatever Your Preferred Metaphor, Romney’s Campaign is Imploding
Posted: September 17, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, U.S. Economy, U.S. Military, U.S. Politics | Tags: birtherism, buzzards circling overhead, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, race baiting, Romney campaign, sharks smelling blood, Stuart Stevens, the GOP base 56 Comments
Buzzards circling overhead…
Sharks smelling blood in the water…
Whatever metaphor you use to describe it, the Romney campaign is searching for answers and playing the blame game.
Last night, based on unnamed sources within the campaign, Politico’s Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei posted a long analysis of “how Mitt Romney stumbled,” and named the designated the scapegoat for Romney’s failures, top campaign strategist and ad man, Stuart Stevens. Stevens has been picked to shoulder the blame for Romney’s lackluster convention speech and his failure to even mention the ongoing war in Afghanistan or the American servicepeople who are fighting and dying far from home. According to Allen and Vandehei, Stevens:
knew his candidate’s convention speech needed a memorable mix of loft and grace if he was going to bound out of Tampa with an authentic chance to win the presidency. So Stevens, bypassing the speechwriting staff at the campaign’s Boston headquarters, assigned the sensitive task of drafting it to Peter Wehner, a veteran of the last three Republican White Houses and one of the party’s smarter wordsmiths.
Stevens junked the entire thing, setting off a chaotic, eight-day scramble that would produce an hour of prime-time problems for Romney, including Clint Eastwood’s meandering monologue to an empty chair.
Romney’s convention stumbles have provoked weeks of public griping and internal sniping about not only Romney but also his mercurial campaign muse, Stevens. Viewed warily by conservatives, known for his impulsiveness and described by a colleague as a “tortured artist,” Stevens has become the leading staff scapegoat for a campaign that suddenly is behind in a race that had been expected to stay neck and neck through Nov. 6.
Designated scapegoat Stuart Stevens
Allen and Vandehei write that, although campaign insiders are throwing Stevens to the wolves, so to speak, Mitt Romney himself deserves a great deal of the blame too. Stevens is his guy, and Romney is likely to stick with him. But back to the convention speech snafu:
As the Tampa convention drew near, Wehner, now a “senior adviser” and blogger for the campaign, was laboring under an unusual constraint for the author of a high-stakes political speech. He was not invited to spend time with Romney, making it impossible to channel him fluently.
Nevertheless, Wehner came up with a draft he found pleasing, including the memorable line: “The incumbent president is trying to lower the expectations of our nation to the sorry level of his own achievement. He only wins if you settle.” It also included a reference to Afghanistan, which was jettisoned with the rest of his work.Instead, eight days before the convention, at a time when a campaign usually would be done drafting and focused instead on practicing such a high-stakes speech, Stevens frantically contacted John McConnell and Matthew Scully, a speechwriting duo that had worked in George W. Bush’s campaign and White House. Stevens told them they would have to start from scratch on a new acceptance speech. Not only would they have only a few days to write it, but Romney would have little time to practice it.
The speech McConnell and Scully came up with was also largely scrapped, and Stevens and Romney “cobbled together” the final unimpressive acceptance speech that failed to even mention the war in Afghanistan or the Americans fighting and dying overseas.
The entire Politico article is well worth reading, since the Romney campaign frequently uses Politico to disseminate their desired campaign narratives, one of which is that Stevens is not a committed conservative, but an ivy-league educated, “creative,” “eclectic,” “artist” type who isn’t particularly ideological and maybe just doesn’t understand the Republican base. And besides, he’s disorganized and undisciplined. But Allen and Vandehei say that “Romney associates” are “baffled” that Romney himself hasn’t gotten a grip on the campaign, since he was such a successful corporate CEO.
This morning both Politico and Buzzfeed posted more insider revelations about the Romney campaign’s latest strategies. Politico’s quotes Stuart Stevens on the supposed new emphasis on “status quo vs. change.”
Stevens said the economy is likely to remain “the dominant focus” of the campaign. But ads and speeches will focus on a wider array of issues, including foreign policy, the threat from China, debt and the tone in Washington.
Stevens said the big, unifying question will be: “Can we do better on every front?”
On Monday, Romney unveiled a new ad, “The Romney Plan,” that punches back at Obama’s consistent emphasis on growing the economy for the middle class, and emphasizes what the Republican would do.
“My plan is to help the middle class,” Romney says in the ad. “Trade has to work for America. That means crack down on cheaters like China. It means open up new markets.”
A second Romney ad out Monday, “Failing American Families,” is harsher, with a male narrator saying: “Barack Obama: More spending. More debt. Failing American families.”
One of the new policies Romney will go with is an appeal to Latino voters on increasing “legal immigration.” Stevens also argues that the chaos in the middle east and the Fed’s decision to roll out QE3 demonstrate President Obama’s lack of leadership. He believes that Romney’s middle east policies will be more appealing to voters in the long run.
At Buzzfeed, McKay Coppins characterizes the new Romney strategy as a move to the far right, with “more God, less economy.”
Mitt Romney’s campaign has concluded that the 2012 election will not be decided by elusive, much-targeted undecided voters — but by the motivated partisans of the Republican base.
This shifting campaign calculus has produced a split in Romney’s message. His talk show interviews and big ad buys continue to offer a straightforward economic focus aimed at traditional undecided voters. But out stumping day to day is a candidate who wants to talk about patriotism and God, and who is increasingly looking to connect with the right’s intense, personal dislike for President Barack Obama.Three Romney advisers told BuzzFeed the campaign’s top priority now is to rally conservative Republicans, in hopes that they’ll show up on Election Day, and drag their less politically-engaged friends with them. The earliest, ambiguous signal of this turn toward the party’s right was the selection of Rep. Paul Ryan as Romney’s running mate, a top Romney aide said.
“This is going to be a base election, and we need them to come out to vote,” the aide said, explaining the pick.
The Buzzfeed report sounds a lot more reality-based to me than Politico’s. Romney will undoubtedly step up the race-baiting, not-so-subtly encourage the birthers, and hope he can tear Obama down with barrages of negative ads funding by his billionaire superpac donors. No doubt it’s going to get really ugly as we approach the debates and then move on to election day, especially if they follow the advice of Focus on the Family’s Bryan Fischer to turn Paul Ryan loose to fire up the base on social issues:
Fischer said he believed Romney would be leading national polls by double digits at this point if he had followed Paul Ryan’s lead and offered more detailed conservative positions on the budget and social issues.
“The biggest mistake is they put a bag over Paul Ryan’s head,” he said. Fischer said he was “deeply disturbed” that Ryan didn’t mention the campaign’s opposition to gay marriage in his speech to the summit on Friday.
“I got to believe that there was some kind of directive from the top of the campaign: We don’t want you to deal with this issue,” he said.
Will any of this help Romney recover from his lousy convention and his disastrous foreign policy missteps? Somehow, I doubt it, but only time will tell.
Here’s one of the new Romney ads.
It’s just more of the same, as far as I can see. Where are the specifics of what Romney would do differently? Here’s the other ad–I guess this supposedly provides specifics (but it doesn’t).
Meanwhile the vultures continue to circle. The New York Daily News is out with a piece by Mike Lupica, calling the Romney campaign a “band of clowns” and “one of the worst campaigns of recent memory.”
There was a lot of talk about Libya last week, because Mitt Romney didn’t know when to shut up about dead Americans, including Chris Stevens, a good man who was our ambassador there.
Somehow, in a terrible moment like that, Romney was boneheaded enough to hand political advantage over to the other side, despite the fact that the President went ahead with a scheduled campaign stop in Las Vegas the next day, as if delaying his appearance by an hour was a suitable mourning period.
But it is not just Libya. It is everything that has happened lately as Romney and the amateurs around him continue to run one of the worst campaigns of recent memory, even against one of the worst economies any sitting President has ever tried to defend.
The people around Romney don’t just look like amateurs, they look like clowns sometimes. Romney was never going to be a great candidate; he doesn’t have it in him, he too often comes across like some stiff poster boy for all the one-percenters who want him elected. But you thought he would do better than this, with the whole thing sitting right there for him, because of this President’s record on the economy and on jobs. Only Mitt Romney has taken an election that should have been his to win and made it something for Barack Obama to lose.
And so on. The media sharks smell blood, and I doubt if they’re going to back off. Soon the rats will be deserting the sinking ship. So many metaphors, so little time.
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All that crap about Romney getting specific about his plans in politico and other stenographic services is junk. They’re going to try for a base election like 2010. Buzzfeed seems to have the real strategy covered.
That was my take. Maybe they coordinated the Politico and Buzzfeed leaks to get both narratives out there.
Yes. Because ads always get you to buy the product that left that really bad taste in your mouth the last times you used it.
Wow, I find myself largely in agreement with George Will.
mediaite: George Will Blasts Idea That Under A Romney Presidency Libyan Attacks Wouldn’t Have Happened
This so reminds me of every time I’ve worked for a CEO of a large company where I’ve had to be their “brains” by being the analyst behind their Senior VIP of Finance/Accounting. I can think of 3 – 4 times this has happened in my corporate career. Usually, the marketing VP is on the power drug equivalent of crystal meth and the CEO is making decisions based on his drug highs. Then, I have to come in and show how that strategy will bankrupt the company eminently. Then, the commercial paper dries up for the company or whatever immediately once my analysis starts leaking out. This even happened when I was like 23 and fresh out of getting my MS. CEOs of large companies are stupid. Their only function is to please stockholders, the board of directors, give pretty speeches, show up for United Way functions and Golf Tournaments and make very very bad decisions. They only get their jobs because of who they know or who they are this day and age. None of them could work the actually core business function. They have one or two favorite butt boys and that breeds contempt among the other sr. vps. This is typical corporate CEO chaos.
Most CEOs I’ve seen may as well be pro golfers who could never win a tournament.
CEOs are “successful” only by greedly claiming the results of many, many others’ (low-paid) hard work.
Yup. The one qualification I would say for most CEOs of big firms–not owner business originator CEOS–is the ability to demonstrate sociopathic behavior.while coming from the correct school or social circle or uterus
This illustrates the hazards of desperately scrambling for someone to parrot your meme. 🙂
rawstory: ‘I Can’t See Your Face Right Now’: ‘Fox & Friends’ Pranked In Wild, Nonsensical Interview
From another video there it appears their former Obama supporter graduated from high school in 2010. 🙂
Too funny. The guy promoted his comedy act, but probably on the wrong channel.
It’s tremendously disturbing to see what politics have become. Romney is not running on his merits and policies – he’s running against something – in this case a person who has two races in his dna. It truly is sad to see what the world is degenerating into.
Rawstory with video…
Don Lemon: Romney throws around ‘patriot’ but lies about Libya attacks
More Stuart Stevens-bashing at the NYT.
LOL
Romney never had the hearts and minds of the GoP voters, including Fox News, until he manage to seize the nomination from the hands of others more ignorant than he appeared to be.
His strength – if any – was from the GOP establishment at large and those whose hatred for Obama bordered on lunacy. Also those Hillary “supporters” stil fighting the wars of 2008 determined to “bring another message” to the DNC who left them at the curb in the process.
But now there is little left to support or defend. He has no foreign policy background or solutions the public is interested in hearing. Judging by the neocons who form that team, most of the public has no interest in another mideast war whose actions are questionable from the interests of the US.
He refuses to be specific on what it will take to offer solutions by way of job creation. He is suggesting adopting the Ryan Budget that promises to devastate the average working man and woman. His declaration of ridding the nation of Obamacare is also sending frightening singles up the backs of those who have come to see that there is some measure of benefit to be had as long as UHC is off the table for now.
His attempts to appear “strong” are laughable as it just does not work in his behalf. Trying to sound “tough” only makes him appear stupid in face of the issues that are out of the control of the government when so many factions are breaking out in areas that we cannot override.
The stimulus did work. Killing bin Laden was a good thing. The GOP can “resist” these successes all they want but the average voter sees through the rhetoric. Romney is not a likable person which is one of his major flaws. Out of touch, out of sync, out of ideas does not win over the people you need to win.
It is not simply the campaign itself that is lacking it is also the candidate who has shown himself to be less than stellar or informed when it comes to what ails us.
Lies have a way of catching up with you when all you have to offer is the bashing of the other guy through those means but have come up short on what your own policies will be as a replacement.
I think the public come November will be able to reject both the man and the agenda he carries with him just to avoid the disaster that will come with his win.
If the MA polls are any indication, they show Elizabeth Warren ahead by 5 points which kind of tells me the public is sick to death of the GOP at this juncture. Scott Brown is experiencing a little of that pushback as of Sept 17th, only 50 days out.
Jon Ward at HuffPo: Mitt Romney Nicks Leadership Cred With Unforced Errors
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/16/mitt-romney-leadership_n_1888782.html
LOL! How can you “fluently” channel someone who speaks in ungrammatical inconsistencies?
The whole thing is really funny. Romney is toast.
One can only hope for the sake of the world ,not just the U.S.
I’m bringing this upstairs, my take on Romney’s “Cunning Plan.”
Funny!
Bay Buchanan was on MSNBC this morning attempting to quell the talk of dissent within the Romney camp and the ongoing implosion. When asked about the counsel being given to Romney by his advisors, Bay said that Mitt “Doesn’t want yes people, he wants people who tell him exactly what HE thinks”. He wants people who tell him what HE thinks????? And that’s exactly the problem with the Romney campaign. 🙂
Yes, so much stupid should be fatal.
Here’s something that should ramp up the panic in the Romney camp:
New Pew poll shows that Obama Wins And Romney Loses Public Perception With Responses To Embassy Attacks
http://www.mediaite.com/online/poll-romney-gets-low-marks-on-response-to-embassy-attacks-obama-gets-high-marks/
Ha! I guess that was part of his “cunning plan.”
I’m surprised Romney’s reaction scored at 26% it was so craven and idiotic, Maybe that’s the Bush 27% minus 1 in action?
Here is another conspiracy theory I’ve never heard of.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/agenda-21-republican-platform-12755348
I wrote something about that awhile back. It’s very odd. It’s based on some UN resolution from ages ago that has never been acted on.
George Soros wants to steal all our golf! That seems to be the most common part or the one that Ted Cruz pushed in the TX Senate primary. I kid you not 😉
Just when you thought their couldn’t be another stupid rape analogy.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/17/akins-wife-says-gop-pressure-to-quit-over-rape-comment-is-also-like-getting-raped/
OMG, the first comment is great.
If it’s a legitimate rape, I’m sure Todd Akin’s system has ways of shutting the whole thing down
These silly rape analogies remind me of that old cartoon from the funny papers that used periodically post entries called “Unclear on the concept.”
This appears to be the new republican version of the Godwin … everything is a holocaust and rape but the actual events themselves.
remember, rape is an “alternative form of conception” and the holocaust is not the one Hitler’s NAZIs did … it’s having the audacity to use birth control.
HuffPo has the leaked Romney video on their front page with a huge scare headline! It’s one where Romney is outraged that some Americans think they are “entitled to health care, food, and housing.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/17/mitt-romney-video_n_1829455.html
HuffPo has confirmed the legitimacy of the videos and the source has given the full, unedited verson to David Corn!
Yes, perhaps since they are all living “large”, he’d like to trade places with one of them for, say, a week? Bet he’d notice that step-up in life style!!
All i can say is Yepeeeee!
Romney still hasn’t denounced these videos, which is proof enough they are real. If David Corn has the original, that means Chris Matthews may talk about it next.
I’m glad to see a real evaluation of this video instead of some BS pushed by the wingnuts!
NYT: Video Shows Libyans Retrieving Envoy’s Body
That’s so sad.
It’s very sad. I’m just glad the NYT played it straight instead of going for some Islamophobic angle. It makes it harder for the wingnuts to make those people out to be a rampaging mob.
Believe me … I’ve been zapping self labelled puma, hillary ‘supporters’ that seem to be irrational islamophobes from facebook for over a week now … it won’t phase these haters. Just zapped one that sent out a youtube that says Obama supports congressional candidate that seeks imposing Sharia Law …
I’ll quote one of our readers from above … this kind of stupid should be fatal
If Max Rice’s prank could get enough attention, it would be a very good thing for the voters in this country.
‘Fox & Friends’ Prankster Says His Appearance Highlights ‘A Greater Issue’
Politico oh yeah, Fair and Balanced.
Wow, all of LSU has been evacuated because of a bomb threat.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/09/17/lsu-bomb-threat-campus-evacuate/70000521/1#.UFeMulH4WSo
BB, Those videos you posted yesterday are really getting twitter play today since they confirmed their authenticity through HuffPo … twitter is atwit with it …
Josh Barro @jbarro
Worst part of video: Mitt says 47 percent of Americans believe that they are victims and can’t be convinced to take personal responsibility.
Jonathan Chait @jonathanchait
Specifically this: “My job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility”
David Waldman @KagroX
Poor people caused the housing crash! Poor people caused the credit collapse! Poor people steal all the money!
Ryan Grim @ryangrim
Romney: I’ll never convince Obama voters to take responsibility for their lives http://wapo.st/S476QJ
Jonathan Weisman @jonathanweisman
Largest percentage of households that pay no taxes (income or payroll) are seniors. I doubt anyone’s campaigning to end that.
Andy Borowitz @BorowitzReport
BREAKING: In New Campaign Strategy, Romney to Have Mouth Wired Shut Until November
See new post up above with more info!!
Wow, the past few days you have been on fire BB.
This is another reason to understand Joe Scarborough. And Mica with the $1000.00, hair color just sits there.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/17/joe-scarborough-muslims-hate-us_n_1890007.html?utm_hp_ref=media
Scarborough and Woodard are WRONG………………and Mika just sits there…………………..is that what it cost to color her hair? I’m looking ahead, and hoping they are gone from tv in the very near future.
In the “what we learned segment” Mica said ” I’m going shopping.”
http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2012/09/mika-brzezinski-dares-you-to-take-her.html
My kind of woman, not.
There are no signs his authority is getting curtailed: Sources inside the campaign said he just prevailed in an internal battle over the next rounds of ads, customized for each swing state.