Mitt Romney Treats Media to Delusional Pity Party
Posted: September 24, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, U.S. Politics | Tags: abortion, auto bailout, bullying, delusional projection, denial, draft deferments, fact checkers, fantasy, fund-raising, lying, Neil Newhouse, overwhelmed, personhood amendments, Rob Portman, Vietnam War 49 Comments
Mitt Romney with Rob Portman, speaking to reporters on flight to Denver, 9/23/12. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Yesterday, on the way from Los Angeles to Denver aboard his private campaign plane, Mitt Romney commiserated with reporters about the way his presidential run is going.
Recently fellow Republicans have been critical of him for spending so much time fund-raising when he should be campaigning in swing states. Yesterday, Romney explained to reporters on his campaign plane why he has had to spend so much time raising money–it’s all President Obama’s fault. According to NBC News, Romney
addressed his languid public campaign schedule of late, which has focused largely on fundraising and debate prep, by again blaming the president for disregarding federal campaign matching funds in 2008 and again this presidential cycle, forcing him to do the same.
“He’s doing it again this time, so to be competitive it means a lot more fundraising than I think I would like,” Romney said. “I’d far rather be spending my time out in the key swing states campaigning, door-to-door if necessary, but in rallies and various meetings, but fundraising is a part of politics when you’re opponent decides not to live by the federal spending limits.”
See, if poor Mitt had had his druthers, he’d have taken federal matching funds instead of raising unlimited campaign money from millionaires and billionaires. But that mean old Barack Obama forced him to turn to mega-rich donors. It wasn’t what Mitt really wanted.
Frankly, I think Romney must be so anxious about the situation he’s in that he is getting slightly delusional. He’s clearly in deep denial about his standing against Obama in the polls. He told Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes that his campaign “doesn’t need a turnaround” because “We’ve got a campaign which is tied with an incumbent President to the United States.”
Really? When you’re behind by about 3 points nationally and trailing in every swing state, I don’t call that tied.
Back to the pity party. Romney told reporters that
“I don’t pay a lot of attention to the day-to-day polls. They change a great deal,” Romney said. “I know in the coming six weeks they’re very unlikely to remain where they are today. I’ll either go up or I’ll go down. It’s unlikely that we’ll just stay the same.”
But when he was asked why he’s behind in swing states, Romney again blamed President Obama. The New York Times Caucus Blog has details on Romney’s complaints about the Obama campaign’s ads:
“I think that the president’s campaign has focused its advertising in many cases on very inaccurate portrayals of my positions,” he said. “They’ve been very aggressive in their attacks both on a personal basis and on a policy basis. I think as time goes on, people will realize that those attacks are not accurate and we’ll be able to have a choice which is based upon each other’s accurate views for the future of country” ….
“When he says I was in favor of liquidating the automobile industry, nothing could be further from the truth,” Mr. Romney said. “My plan was to rebuild the auto industry and take it through bankruptcy so that could happen, and by the way he doesn’t mention he took them through bankruptcy.”
Mr. Romney did oppose the auto industry bailout, instead lobbying for a process of “managed bankruptcy,” which he said would have allowed the car companies to restructure and emerge stronger than before. Though Mr. Obama did ultimately take General Motors and Chrysler through managed bankruptcies, the president argues that the process would not have been possible without his decision to inject the companies with billions in taxpayer money — an intervention Mr. Romney opposed.
Romney also expressed dismay that the Obama campaign has claimed that he is against abortion “even in cases of rape and incest and the life of the mother….That’s wrong.” It’s true that Romney has said he believes that rape and incest victims and mothers whose physical health is threatened should be excepted from abortion bans; but at the same time he chose Paul Ryan–who doesn’t support any exceptions–as his running mate and before that he told Mike Huckabee that he supports state constitutional amendments to establish “personhood” for fertilized eggs. So why should voters trust him?
On his tax plan, according to The National Journal, Romney
accused his rival of inaccurately saying he favors lowering taxes on the wealthy while raising them on middle-income people. He was apparently referring to Democrats’ use of a study by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that found Romney’s tax plan would require households with incomes under $200,000 to pay higher taxes, on average, to help finance tax cuts for the rich. Romney has dismissed the study’s assumptions as “garbage.”
Back to the Caucus Blog:
Standing in the back of his plane, and pressed by reporters to explain his lagging position in many polls, Mr. Romney — whose campaign recently said that they would not allow fact-checkers to dictate their campaign — found himself calling for fact-checkers.
“I understand that politics is politics but in the past, when you’ve had an ad which has been roundly pointed out to be wrong, you take it out and you correct it and you put something back on,” Mr. Romney said.
“He keeps running these things even though he knows they’re wrong and saying them in rallies even though he knows they’re wrong.”
Talk about projection. I’d even call it delusional projection. This is from the guy whose top pollster Neil Newhouse famously said “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.” In fact, (via Americablog) a recent study by
the self-proclaimed non-partisan “Center for Media and Public Affairs” – which has been accused of conservative ties in the past – finds that media fact-checkers found Mitt Romney and the GOP lied twice as much as Democrats. It’s some coincidence that the study came out just a few weeks after the Republican party collectively decided that it’s time to start tearing down fact-checkers.
Note that (see above) in the midst of his many complaints, Romney even indulged in the somewhat delusional fantasy that voters would somehow suddenly wake up and recognize President Obama’s despicable treachery:
I think as time goes on, people will realize that those attacks are not accurate and we’ll be able to have a choice which is based upon each other’s accurate views for the future of country.
It’s difficult to see how that could happen as long as Romney himself keeps repeating lies about President Obama and shifting his own positions at the drop of a hat. But Romney apparently believes the voters’ epiphany will come during the debates, when he will magically be able to express himself clearly at last. From The National Journal:
“I think the president will not be able to continue to mischaracterize my pathway, and so I’ll continue to describe mine, he will describe his, and people will make a choice,” he said. “That’s the great thing about democracy. I’m not going to try to fool people into thinking he believes things he doesn’t. He’s trying to fool people into thinking that I think things that I don’t. And that ends at the debates.”
But he said that he couldn’t guarantee a debate win. “I can’t tell you winning and losing,” he said. “I mean, he’s president of the United States, he’s a very effective speaker. I hope I’ll be able to describe my positions in a way that is accurate and the people will make a choice as to which path they want to choose. I happen to believe that if we each do our job relatively well, I will be able to convince people that our pathway forward will be more prosperous and more secure and more confident if we choose the path I describe.”
I really think Mitt Romney is so anxious and stressed that he’s losing it–he seems completely unaware of how his own behavior looks to others. He has begun deluding himself in order to hide his failures from himself. I don’t think he has ever faced such a difficult challenge in his life until now. He has always been the guy on top–the one who could get away with anything.
In high school, Romney could pin down a classmate and cut his hair without being charged with assault; he could lead an elderly professor into a glass door an not be disciplined, he could make fun of a classmate’s speech patterns and get away with it. He could even pose as a highway patrolman and stop a car on the highway as a “prank” with no repercussions whatsoever. As a young man, his father helped him obtain four draft deferrals so he could be protected from being sent to Vietnam like so many others his age. As an adult, he was a CEO whose every order must be obeyed and whose whims were catered to.
Finally at age 65, Romney is facing a real test of character, and I don’t think he’s up to it. He’s self-destructing in a very public way. It will be very interesting to watch his behavior in the debates and his other appearances during the last few weeks of the campaign.
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Speaking of delusional, this would explain a lot of what I perceive to be cognitive dissonance.
SteveM: HIGH ON THEIR OWN SUPPLY?
Now that the Republicans are making up their own polls, I’d believe just about anything.
It’s easy to be successful when 95% of the work is done for you before you even get your “mitts” on it. Yes, “it’s HARD” … those of us that haven’t had everything handed to us learn at an early age to start the process and finish it with some help. They still don’t realize they play every game with bases loaded and there they are always standing on third–having been put their by their fathers–with the next hitter’s instructions being ” bring those folks on third base home”.
(ack! I used a sports metaphor!)
That was a good metaphor! It says it all.
Well, it’s the only way I could explain their mindset. It’s like they’ve started on third base for so long, they have no idea that no one else gets that kind of advantage. They just expect to start on third base and they expect every one to cheer them for their ‘run’ just because they went from third base to home with some one basically hitting the ball to a place where they can do that. They have no idea there are other “plays”in the game and that almost no one has their set up. So, if they have to start at second they think they’re persecuted! Some one made them go back!!! and that’s not just how their game is played!
Seems to me as if Romney has bought his own BS. He just doesn’t believe he can lose like all the other times in his life he “won”.
Right, Dak! The bonus class are so used to living off the brawn and brains of the non-rich that they come to think it’s normal to do a pittance of work and claim all the credit.
Parasites.
You know, I don’t even begrudge them their ignorance. They can’t help it, they have no frame of reference. In my own case, I know what it is to search for loose change to try to scrape up my rent money and during that time I either didn’t eat or I ate scrambled egg sandwiches because I could get a dozen eggs for 39 cents with a coupon and I could go to the bakery outlet and get a loaf of white bread for 25 cents, but I have no idea what it must be like for people who know that their children are hungry or starving and they can’t find food. There are different levels of poverty and different experiences and nobody is saying that you have to have been at every level in order to be a good president, but Romney and the Republicans have repeated disdainful references about poor people who feel “entitled” and insisted that the budget must be slashed but the only programs they want to slash are programs that help the poor and middle class. In a civilized society, there has to be a safety net. There has to be a point where we decide that we will not let people go without medicine or food or shelter because we care about what happens to people. Romney and the Republicans don’t seem to care and that’s why they should not be elected.
If you think this is not Mitt, Google Mitt Romney Temper, this is just one
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/97756/mitt-romney-anger-lmfao
I actually wrote about that months ago. I loved that piece!
Sorry i missed that one. And I just don’t think Paul Ryan made the same mistake twice.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2012/09/23/ryans-amended-returns-offer-more-questions-than-answers/
That’s OK. I’ve written a million posts about Romney.
Well somebody should make an ad out of this
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/24/workers-beg-romney-to-stop-latest-bain-outsourcing/
WHOA:
Hillary Clinton Aide Tells Reporter To “Fuck Off” And “Have A Good Life”
As the State Department’s story about what happened in Benghazi crumbles, Clinton’s personal spokesperson, Philippe Reines, loses his temper. “Have a good day. And by good day I mean Fuck Off.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/hillary-clinton-aide-tells-reporter-to-fuck-off
It’s about CNN finding that diary, btw
Personally, I think what CNN did was unethical.
And so did I BB.
http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/09/23/puncturing-myths-about-the-white-working-class/
A new survey and report from the Public Religion and Research Institute—entitled “Beyond God and Guns”—is a valuable corrective to so many stereotypes of the white working class. Particularly noteworthy in this report are the large and important differences within the white working class—by age, region, gender, and party, to name a few. For example, consider this:
In mid-August, Romney held a commanding 40-point lead over Obama among white working-class voters in the South (62% vs. 22%). However, neither candidate held a statistically significant lead among white working-class voters in the West (46% Romney vs. 41% Obama), Northeast (42% Romney vs. 38% Obama), or the Midwest (36% Romney vs. 44% Obama).
The report amplifies some of the findings I discussed in my “zombie” post—not only how different the white working class is within and outside the South, but how much more social issues affect the political choices of the white college-educated more than the white working class.
If anyone has a chance to read my post, I’d love to get some reactions to it.
Sorry, I think your post is absolutely correct. He is a world class whiner and has no clue why the US hasn’t elected him yet by voice vote!
BB, is delusional projection a sign of psychosis? Do you really think that is what Romney has? He certainly seems to have mental disorganization and a loose grip on reality these days.
It’s a very extreme form of the defense mechanism projection in which a person is obviously out of touch with reality–usually in relation to a sense of persecution. I didn’t mean that he’s psychotic, but what he was saying is not even close to being reality-based. In this case, I doubt if any of the reporters who heard Romney’s whining believed a word of it. I’d bet if we could see their faces at the time, they’d be slack-jawed and amazed.
Romney has been saying that Obama lies all the time, when it is actually Romney who has been caught repeatedly lying (projecton). Obama may have exaggerated in his ads, but Romney’s ads are based on bald-faced lies, e.g. “you didn’t build that” and the welfare ads. Each one of the complaints Romney made was debunked in the articles that reported them. It seems that Romney actually believes these things, in which case he must be so stressed by the situation he’s in that he’s temporarily losing touch with reality.
I hope that makes sense.
Thanks for explaining that, BB. Yes, it makes sense. A temporary loss of touch with reality in response to stress after having lived in a protected bubble all his life.
I don’t even want to think about how he would react to an international crisis as POTUS.
That’s what scares me too. Romney doesn’t seem to have very good judgment or self-control
Living in the comfortable world of the Heritage Foundation echo chamber, where confirmation bias is mistaken for intellectual integrity, it becomes quite easy to be confused by those who speak the heresy of the 99%.
In ancient tribal times when a big event was taking place, the tribal elders would bring forth a young boy and give them a beating royale in order for the boy to clearly carry the tribal history into his elderly years.
Given the royal drubbing we have taken courtesy of the Bush economy and its aftermath, we aren’t likely to forget any time soon what put us where we are. Unfortunately for Romney, he counted on our collective memory to be cloudy on the root cause — it isn’t and given the severity of the beating we have taken, we will be able to carry the story for generations to come. Hopefully, this economic beating will put an end to political slogans masquerading as economic theories.
I’m sorry BB I thought I was responding, yes, I very much agree with you and I personally think his portraying himself as a victim, along with those people in that fund raiser, is actually what the 1 percent now believe. I think the Occupy Movement scared them, although I don’t think they have used this to their benefit. But the way I see the media today, they will never make the connection. After Romney’s week from hell, they still want a close race. Today I noticed they are not pushing the total mess he was on 60 minutes and drawing attention to something Obama said about the middle east turmoil, that I can’t even remember to quote right now.
The media can only let a candidate explode so much. Then it’s back to what ever they say sounds reasonable mode.
I don’t think I have every heard a candidate have this many opposite positions on tape, back to back, in such a short time. The man has no soul.
He really for the first time in my life, just wants to be president for no reason other than being called The President
One example I can remember today, The space program, really!
World’s largest Obama sticker. Never guess where.
http://beingliberal.tumblr.com/post/32178353821/biggestobamasticker
Do you think Romney actually believes that Obama is lying about him? Does Romney really believe that his ads are truthful? If he does, then he is really using delusional projection. Someone who is that out of touch with reality should never be put in a position of power, much less the presidency.
Lord no, BB, this is the worst shit I have ever seen in an election. I don’t know how Romney is even close.
Anyone believe they would be doing this if Romney were winning?
TPM: GOP Armed Services Committee Senators Endorse ‘Balanced’ Deficit Reduction Approach
That still sounds hinky to me. Those Republicans know that tax increases are not going to get through the House–unless the Dems actually take over in November.
@TheFix: The chart that goes with our latest House rankings is really, really cool. http://wapo.st/QQwW84
Sam Wang says they have a shot. He got every race right last time so who knows?
“See, if poor Mitt had had his druthers, he’d have taken federal matching funds instead of raising unlimited campaign money from millionaires and billionaires. But that mean old Barack Obama forced him to turn to mega-rich donors. It wasn’t what Mitt really wanted.”
I think what happened to Romney is that he thought after Citizens United that he’d be able to shut Obama down by snatching up most of the Wall Street bankrollers, but it just hasn’t happened. Now he wants to whine about Obama beating him at the money game? Obama has beat him at the money game by outraising him through small donation donor base. Apparently his Teavangical base isn’t going to send Mitt Romney $10.$15, $25 dollars when he has the lionshare of the mega-wealthy on his active/ongoing donor list and while he has over $250 Million dollars sitting in bank accounts and investment vehicles around the globe.
In the end Romney’s fate will be sealed by the very people he loathes, the middle class and working poor. TOO BAD
I love the comment to another idiot
When Romney said he didn’t care about these people he was referring to
not care about reaching out to these people because he knows that it
will be futile. They are already decided about who they will vote for
That’s a load of crap. Half of that so called 47% are poor white conservative Christians who are going to vote for Rmoney no matter what. Another part of that 47% are people just like Rmoney, the super wealthy who pay a ridiculously low tax rate on millions and even billions.
http://www.americansfortaxfair…
http://www.businessinsider.com…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Not all of those escaping income taxes have modest incomes, however. In 2009, according to Internal Revenue Service studies, six of the 400 U.S. tax filers with the highest adjusted gross income (meaning AGI of at least $77 million) paid no U.S. income tax, while 19,551 U.S. households with income above $200,000 owed no U.S. or foreign income tax.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ja…
He was saying how he would focus on those who were in the middle…
Oh sure, Romney is so focused on the middle. BULLSHIT. Romney is directly responsible for putting hundreds of ‘middle income’ people out of work and shipping their jobs overseas while he was with Bain Capital and getting filthy rich off the misfortune of ‘middle income’ people who lost it all.
http://www.reuters.com/article…
What about Obama’s video saying he was a proponent of redistribution of wealth?
Okay, did you watch the ‘whole’ video or just the part edited for your viewing pleasure? Obama said redistribution was good to “a certain extent”. Our entire system operates on redistribution you dummy. We pay taxes that pay for our government, military, roads, infrastructure, education system, public transportation, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, welfare, subsidies to corporations and the wealthy like the Koch Industries, that cost American tax payers nearly a billion a year…
http://thinkprogress.org/econo…
If redistribution bothers you that much, what about redistribution from the bottom to the top?
Here is the Obama ‘redistribution’ video you’re harping about…the whole thing…watch the whole thing and not the edited ‘FoxNews’ version.
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_…
http://www.mediamatters.org/bl…
More on ‘redistribution’
http://www.econlib.org/library…
What about the comment Obama made about not being able to change Washington from the inside?
Again, you only saw what you wanted to see and hear. He didn’t mean it couldn’t be changed at all, he meant it could only be change from the outside…by the people, the voters…
And for your information Ms uninformed, Romney said the same thing in 2008…
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrew…
Obama acknowledging his campaign had stretched the truth in some campaign ads but said, hey that is politics…
Oh, like Obama is the only one hah?
Here, you want to meet someone who really ‘stretches’ the truth every time he opens his mouth? Here…
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/s…
No go learn something for a change.
Sorry for the long comment
Hey! No Problem! We’ll grab you as a front pager if you keep this up!!!
Dak, I would be so proud but I’m unreliable! My life is 2 hours sleep, 6 hours anxiety, 4 hours depression 1 hour drinking a glass of wine! I you love guys
New Elizabeth Warren ad. This is a good one!
Ralph , I thought this was a smart and compassionate reply. Having cared for both dying parents it meant something to me.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/24/warren-backs-medical-marijuana-with-the-right-restrictions/
Scott Brown is out there today attacking her on her Cherokee heritage and now they’re saying she has been practicing law without a license. Pierce had a good piece on it.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/scott-brown-campaign-strategy-13029838
I thought I had a good history of Lee and Karl, but this guy Jim Barnett is the 2.0 of dirty. Good God.
That ad is her response to Brown’s ad from this morning.
I think Elizabeth may have to get more aggressive in dealing with Brown’s attacks.
New Zogby Poll (internet poll) First Zogby I’ve seen this year.
Obama 49
Romney 40
OMG, has anyone seen the Paul Ryan rally
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/24/voter-asks-ryan-why-hes-better-than-vermin-supreme/
During a town hall event in Lima, Ohio on Monday a voter asked Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) why Mitt Romney was a better choice than Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) or anarchist Vermin Supreme.
Romney is obviously not a better candidate than Vermin Supreme! Vermin was the most sensible person I saw interviewed in Tampa during the RNC.
A chicken in every pot! A pony on every boat! My kind of campaign promises.
Lima, Ohio is right on the border of Ohio and Indiana. High school kids from my town used to drive over there to buy 3.2 beer. The drinking age for 3.2 beer in Ohio in those days was 16.
Rachel Maddow says she has exclusive new tape from Mitt Shady’s “47% speech” coming up on her show.