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 Monday, December 31, 2007
There is an adage which warns against kicking a man when he’s down, but what is one to do when that man paints a target on himself and begs for it?
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee today gave what can only be termed as the most bizarre press conference of 2007. Given that today is New Year’s Eve, that’s quite an accomplishment. To believe Huck, you have to believe that he spent a chunk of cash (which is no doubt in short supply) creating a “negative ad” with which he was planning on pummeling Mitt today starting at noon. Then – and one can only venture a guess as to why – Huck had an epiphany this morning and decided to keep his campaign on a “positive” track rather than stooping to mudslinging. This would all be fine and good with the glaring exception of his Bizarro Press Conference where he showed his negative ad to a room packed with reporters. The ad basically accuses Mitt of being a bold faced liar. If ever there was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, this is it. The New York Times link has video I’m sure will be plastered across the net. You’ll note the raucous laughter of the reporters as Huck tells the story of his epiphany. No, Huck, they aren’t laughing with you. Neither am I. I’m laughing at you. You see, I don’t buy Huck’s story. Not in the least. I think he’s being disingenuous. In short, I think he’s lying. Political ads don’t just grow on trees. They take time to make and cost a wad of cash to generate. I don’t know the full extent of Huck’s finances, but I think it’s a safe bet he doesn’t have cash to throw down the rat hole by creating hit ads he’s never going to use. In my not so humble opinion, Huck’s Bizzaro Press Conference was part of a seriously flawed strategy that has now blown up in his face. Huck wanted to throw down a hit ad on Mitt and still come away smelling like a rose. He wanted the people of Iowa specifically, and Americans in general, to believe he had Mitt lined up in his sights and his finger on the proverbial trigger and then at the last moment decided to be merciful and positive. The only problem with his plan is the number of people who believe his epiphany story can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Iowans know hypocrisy when they see it, and right now they see it personified by Mike Huckabee. Huck has spent the better part of the past two days whining about comparison ads run by Mitt in Iowa and New Hampshire. Methinks the Gov doth protest far too much. Mitt’s ad barrage is devastatingly accurate and Huck knows this. He also knows he doesn’t have the resources (or the record) to go toe to toe with Mitt in the last few days leading up to the Hawkeye Cauci. Huck knows if he loses Iowa people will be chasing him down trying to jab him in the hindquarters with a huge fork because he’ll be way past done. While Huck’s Bizarro Press Conference won’t eclipse Howard Dean’s spectacular Iowa implosion, I’m beginning to think it might come in as a close second. Labels: ads, huckabee, press, Romney. Poll Friday, August 24, 2007
Romney: Mass. Health Plan Can Be Copied, Glen Johnson, AP
Romney Won't Adapt Mass. Plan, Perry Bacon Jr., Washington Post Romney's Federal Prescription, Mary Jacoby and Sarah Lueck, Wall Street Journal Romney to Pitch a State-by-State Health Insurance Plan, Michael Luo, NY Times Romney to detail his healthcare Rx, Lisa Wangsness, Boston Globe H/T Marc Ambinder. Labels: healthcare, press Thursday, May 10, 2007
 The cover of Time Magazine! Tagg R. posts the covers of Time where Mitt's father donned the front page:   Labels: press Tuesday, March 20, 2007
You know you've come of age when the DNC aims all its guns at you; when moderate republicans have you in your cites and when your enemies in the press will do ANYTHING to drag you down in the dumps.
The later episode was on full display over the last two days as the Miami Herald reports on a supposed faux pas that Gov. Romney supposedly committed in front of a Cuban-American audience by quoting a Castro phrase at the end of his speech. There's only one problem. He was using the phrase to bash Castro. Capn' Ed and others at CQ are on top of the story. Here' how the Miami Herald reports the "blunder": People chuckled when presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon raised in Michigan and elected in Massachusetts, bungled the names of Cuban-American politicians during a recent speech in Miami.Here's what Romney ACTUALLY said: Romney: “I said at the outset that the threat in Latin America is unprecedented. I say that because the Castros have a second tyrant and he has great wealth, from oil. We must stand just as firm against caudillos like Hugo Chavez, tutored by Fidel Castro. Chavez and Castro are brothers in blood, intent on personal gratification at the expense of their people. Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro have stolen the phrase – 'Patria o muerte, venceremos.’ This phrase should not be used by dictators, but by liberators.It's absurd that the Miami Herald had to stoop to this level. But we can't say we're surprised Saturday, February 24, 2007
What do you get when you pair Jennifer Dobner (the LDS Church watcher) and Glen Johnson (the Romney basher) together on an article about Romney's Marmon family roots? A hit piece like no other.
Jennifer is fairly tame in her decidedly left-leaning muckraking, though at times she inserts some fun axiomatic assumptions into her pieces (implying that the Mormon church would "punish" a man who entered into a "legal, same-sex marriage"). Glen has cut his teeth far deeper than Jennifer implying disappointment that Governor Romney doesn't carry over his displeasure with the Mass. Supreme Court into the public arena (see here and here). With their dual agendas the path to literary sniping was almost inevitable. Actually, I got a call from a friend this morning who indicated that reporters were poking around down in Mexico trying to interview some of the supposed long-lost polygamous cousins of Mitt Romney. It says something about the personal integrity of Governor Romney that his detractors have to scour back 3 generations to literally dig up a skeleton in a closet... since his closet is pretty darn clean. You see the main problem with AP hit pieces is that they don't state their claims.... they simply insinuate. So the article starts out like this: While Mitt Romney condemns polygamy and its prior practice by his Mormon church, the Republican presidential candidate's great-grandfather had five wives and at least one of his great-great grandfathers had 12.This would be funny if it weren't so contorted. They set up the sentence as a dichotomy but can't quite come to the realization of what that dichotomy is. So we need some MORE insinuation: Romney's father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, where Mormons fled in the 1800s to escape religious persecution and U.S. laws forbidding polygamy. He and his family did not return to the United States until 1912, more than two decades after the church issued "The Manifesto" banning polygamy.So the whispering voices that Dobner and Johnson want you to hear is that Romney Sr. was possibly a closet polygamist himself, that his immediate kin were Mormon defilers for decades and that Mitt obviously must have polyamorous leanings. What any of this has to do with Romney's presidential aspirations is unclear. Except this: Dobner and Johnson do not want you to vote for him. And nothing pulls on a voters heart strings like the strange estrangement and tears of Mitt's Great Great grandmother: "I felt that was more than I could endure, to have him divide his time and affections from me. I used to walk the floor and shed tears of sorrow. If anything will make a woman's heart ache, it is for her husband to take another wife. ... But I put my trust in my heavenly father, and prayed and pleaded with him to give me strength to bear this great trial."Again, I ask. What does this have to do with Mitt? This is agenda press politics at its best! Labels: AP, family, Glen Johnson, Jennier Dobner, mitt romney, polygamy, press
To start with the obvious Mitt Romney is most conservative candidate in the field who has, at present, a chance of winning. The press doesn’t like conservatives, or at the very least, is more hostile to conservatives than it is to liberals. The press sees everything regarding a conservative in the worst possible light; liberals are more likely to get the benefit of the doubt.This is one thing that conservative forget. Regardless how you think Romney REALLY feels about the issues his public stance is THE conservative candidate in the GOP candidate slate. Dean continues: A second reason is that Mitt Romney doesn’t look like a politician should, or at least the way the media thinks a Republican politician should. Given that Romney is constantly praised for his patrician demeanor, his impeccable manner and his smooth-as-silk politicking... The press has come to expect Republicans to fit certain molds. They are supposed to be inarticulate and not quick on their feet. The press has stereotyped every Republican presidential nominee since Ford in this way. They are also supposed to be intellectually unimaginative or downright unintelligent. Again, every Republican presidential nominee since Ford has had to live with this label. They are further required to be creatures of politics who have accomplished nothing or next to nothing outside of the political world. Lastly, all Republicans ought to have a bit of Elmer Gantry in them. They should preach about morality and piety, but they should always be obliging enough to have at least a few skeletons jangling in their closet.Think about our past slate of presidential candidates: Bush (inarticulate), Dole (dour), Bush 41 (unimpressive). Romney exudes something very different. As one press person put it: "Romney is straight out of central casting!" Dean summarizes this point: Mitt Romney fails to live up to any of these stereotypes. Intellectually, Romney graduated Harvard’s Business and Law Schools with top honors. Furthermore, it seems like he’s completely unfamiliar with the media dictates that Republicans should wrestle with English like it’s a hostile foreign language and make themselves available for lampooning as dullards.So why else are the press shooting at Romney? Lastly, and probably most frustratingly for the media, the Romney closet is depressingly barren. When Mitt Romney talks about family values, he’s able to point to his own wife of 40 years and a brood of children and grandchildren that seems too good even for a Christmas card.Barnett makes a great defense elsewhere on why this approach just won't work Labels: anti-romney, bash, dean barnett, flip-flop, mitt romney, press Friday, February 23, 2007
National Religious Broadcasters Convention, February 18, 2007, Orlando
comments by Mark DeMoss  Last September, after months of personal research, I sat in the office of a remarkable man. I was meeting, for the first time in person, a 59 year-old man who:
You see, I had been hearing that evangelicals would not support a Mormon for president (even though we’ve worked closely with them for 30 years on a host of issues of importance to us); and that thinking bothered me. After all, I would not want people to say, “I could never vote for an evangelical—those people are crazy.” I further thought that if one-third of evangelicals saw fit to vote for Bill Clinton—the second time—a Southern Baptist who doesn’t share my values, surely we could consider a Mormon who does share and practice these values. So, as I think about our country and the next election, I have concluded two things:
I believe when evaluating a candidate for this important office, we should evaluate the whole of a person’s life—his experience, his behavior, his family, his intellect, his integrity, and his character. That September day, in the Massachusetts Statehouse, I told Gov. Romney two things: I told him I wanted to help him; and I told him I wasn’t for hire. I was looking for a candidate, not a client. A month later I was fortunate to spend a day in the governor’s home, getting to know him and his wife better; and I quickly developed a friendship and a conviction that this is a special man and a rare kind of leader. So I have tried to introduce Gov. Romney, and his wonderful wife Ann, to fellow evangelicals ever since, and I’m honored that they have come to Orlando today to meet with us. I am convinced that if “values voters” are looking for a candidate with real values, you are about to meet the real thing. So after Jay Sekulow, my co-host for this meeting today, shares a few additional comments, I am proud to join him in introducing my special friends, Gov. and Mrs. Mitt Romney. Labels: evangelicals, event, mark demoss, mitt romney, press, speech MP3 File SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST CLICK BELOW:   OR use our feed: XML Podcast Feed Labels: campaign, dean barnett, mittcast, press Thursday, February 22, 2007
 Dean Barnett on Hugh Hewitt's blog has posted what I think is the single best analysis of the current buffetings against the Romney campaign.Dean starts his posted noting what a lot of people have felt this week: Romney took some hits. After sleeping on the issue here's what Dean surmises: But after, a good night’s sleep, I’ve come to see things differently. It’s all good. Really - this has been a great week for the Romney campaign.Dean sees this as a classic Rope-A-Dope effect hearkening back to the famous Ali-Foreman fight: In these early days of the election cycle, Romney is playing the role of Ali and the press is Foreman. Although it’s easy for us political obsessives to forget, there can be no knockouts a year before Iowa. The flip-side of that coin is also informative – Howard Dean had a perfect 2003 and wound up a distant also ran to political titans like John Kerry and John Edwards.Dean get a little defensive (and rightly so in my mind) about the current kanoodling around Romney issues: THE OFT-REPEATED CHARGE AGAINST MITT ROMNEY IS THAT HE’S A FLIP-FLOPPER and an opportunist. As someone who knows him and who is familiar with his character, it annoys me no end to see Romney’s detractors so relentlessly peddle such an inaccurate caricature.As we pointed out today with the whole Bopp thing people really are itching for a fight with Romney. Dean continues and hits paydirt with the key part of his post: But there’s an undeniable political upside to this development. It will hardly be possible for the press to release a big “breaking news” story on the eve of the Iowa primary that says in effect, “This just in: Mitt Romney is a flip-flopper!!!” By the time the public is steeling itself to take a hard look at who should be its next President, the press will have punched itself out as far as Mitt Romney is concerned. Believe me – Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani should be so fortunate.The logic in Barnett's argument is frankly very convincing. To test his theory I asked a group of my employees (IT professionals) what they know about Mitt Romney. Their response: "Mitt who?" While the challenge of name recognition is a significant one it also demonstrates that the pithy infighting and ridicilous gnat squinting is just that. Most people still haven't made up there mind. Or as one blog put it "I don't even know what he looks like?" Here's the last part of Dean's post where he sums up the whole theory: And when the time finally comes for Romney to counterpunch after all the breathless “exposés” have been written and all the YouTubes have been aired, Romney will find his opponents in the media as easy to knock out as George Foreman was in the 8th round of the Rumble in the Jungle. The governor will be able to respond to his critics with two easy smackdowns that will be devastating when the time is right. The first is an old John F. Kennedy saw: “It’s not where you come from, but where you stand.” The second will be a completely justified swipe at the pettiness and endlessly repetitive nature of these attacks: “I want to talk about our country’s future. I will, even if the press and my opponents are obsessed with my past.”Kudos to Dean. I buy it. Labels: blogs, campaign, dean barnett, george foreman, mohammed ali, press Sunday, February 18, 2007
 Or so says Dick Polman in a Sunday editorial. The wheels have officially come off the Straight Talk Express.Polman recalls the "pandering" McCain on tour, running for President in 2000, riding shotgun with an enamored press. Apparently, the jokes and inside stories flew fast and furious on the tour bus to nowhere. And the press lapped it up. Polman recounts: I remember one frigid New Hampshire night, somewhere along Interstate 93. McCain held court, and we crowded around. He ruminated a bit about health care (he confessed that the issue bored him), gossiped about some people he didn't like (signaling his distaste by rolling his eyes), reminisced about his days as a carousing Navy flyboy (he said he dated an exotic dancer named "Marie the Flame Thrower of Florida"), and there were rollicking good vibes as we rolled along.Next, in a startling admission, Polman pulls back the blinds even further: But I never rode again, having no desire to be part of McCain's laugh track. Somehow, a bit of professional distance seemed more appropriate. And it was obvious McCain knew exactly what he was doing. He had very little money at the time - all the big donors were backing his rival, George W. Bush - so he needed free and favorable exposure. And flattering the press was the best way to get it.From that time the centrist McCain has welcomed wave upon wave of warm waters from the press, hailed as the "maverick" of the GOP. All the bus needs is a good paint job right? Not so fast, says Polman: ...that's not likely to happen, not at a time when the media feel so betrayed.hey fell hard for McCain in 2000, not just because he granted so much access, but because he sold himself as a rebel, an anti-establishment reformer with no patience for political orthodoxy. Reporters bought the McCain persona, because they (like many of their fellow citizens) are frustrated romantics who yearn for authenticity in public life. So when an alleged rebel turns out to be a calculating opportunist, that's an open invitation for the Fourth Estate to lose the love and rediscover its adversarial impulses.Brace yourself John. The press has burned the kids' gloves. Hugh Hewitt alludes to this as the media's rope-a-dope approach -- get John the primary then stomp and tromp him. Hugh thought it would be melanoma and old age. It looks like the press might just be a little more honest than we expected.Read the whole article! Our own Dave Burris has the second pass at this interesting and revealing article, who's flipping now! | ||||
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