The excerpt of this Sunday's 60 Minutes interview (video) released by CBS is quite stunning in its documentation of a major party candidate for the presidency of the US in a state of denial and delusion so apparently profound that this in and of itself should disqualify him for the office. The title of the post presenting the excerpt, "Romney: My campaign doesn't need a turnaround," nearly says it all.
But the full import -- of the edited excerpt -- comes unsurprisingly at the end of the video released today. The transcript provided by CBS is below the fold, but (spoiler), at least at the time the interview was taped, Romney appeared to prefer to really not agree to the widely shared consensus view of the state of his campaign.
Put another way, he seems a little around the bend. Perhaps he was overly tired. Maybe he was just faking and knows things are pretty bad. But he insisted that things were just fine. He says no change is needed. He seems kind of manic.
Here's the transcript. The video is here.
Scott Pelley: You are slipping in the polls at this moment. A lot of Republicans are concerned about this campaign. You bill yourself as a turnaround artist. How are you going to turn this campaign around?
Mitt Romney: Well, actually, we're tied in the polls. We're all within the margin of error. We bounce aroun -- week to week-- day to day. There are some days we're up. There are some days we're down. We go forward with my message, that this is a time to reinvigorate the American economy, not by expanding government and raising taxes on people, but instead by making sure government encourages entrepreneurship and innovation and gets the private sector hiring again.
Scott Pelley: Governor, I appreciate your message very much. But that wasn't precisely the question. You're the CEO of this campaign. A lot of Republicans would like to know, a lot of your donors would like to know, how do you turn this thing around? You've got a little more than six weeks. What do you do?
Mitt Romney: Well, it doesn't need a turnaround. We've got a campaign which is tied with an incumbent president to the United States.
Scott Pelley: Well-- as you know, a lot of people were concerned about the video of the fundraiser in which you talked about the 47 percent of the American people who don't pay taxes. Peggy Noonan, a very well-known conservative columnist, said that it was an example of this campaign being incompetent. And I wonder if any of that criticism gets through to you and whether you're concerned about it at all, whether--
Mitt Romney: Well, that's not--
Scott Pelley: --the concerns of Republicans--
Mitt Romney: That's not...that's not the campaign. That was me, right? I-- that's not a campaign.
Scott Pelley: You are the campaign--
Mitt Romney: I've got a very effective campaign. It's doing a very good job. But not everything I say is elegant. And I want to make it very clear, I want to help 100 percent of the American people.
Emphasis added. Watch it if you dare.