It was incredible to see Mitt Romney just pull a John Kerry with his verbal Hara-Kari saying “I’m not very concerned about poor people.” It was a stunningly poor messaging stumble, which sucked the media oxygen out of his ginormous Florida win the previous night. Hell, Brett Baier had to use the entire first half of panel dissecting it.
On the day that John Kerry spoke those fateful words about having voted for a continuing resolution on the Iraq war, I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, realizing that they would be his undoing. Taken out of context or not, it was “Washington speak,” the jargon of statecraft that is lost on 90% of the American people. As a statement standing alone, it exposed a level of bullshit that the country has little taste for. It also showed Kerry to be a person who had no firmly held principles.
But the situation with Romney is actually even better, and more helpful to Obama’s reelection.
Because when you put the statement in its context it looks even worse. Mitt Romney says there’s a safety net, and if there are any holes in it, he’ll put his Mr. Fix-it hat on. Like interest groups on a checklist.
But showing your concern for the very poor purely in monetary terms, is no way to win an election. He doesn’t talk about their hopes, dreams, or aspirations. On Fox’s Special Report Baier’s crew chided Romney for not framing the argument in terms of conservative principles advocating for things like school vouchers. As if that would have made it go down better.
No, Romney instead just wiped away 46 million Americans, by saying I’m not worried about you. It was the perfect way for Romney to say “I’m an elitist.” So as a Washington journalist might say, this may be the moment when Mitt Romney lost the Presidency in 2012.
In many ways Mitt Romney is the Republicans’ Al Gore or John Kerry. Just like them, Romney is a patrician Type A high-achieving guy, with a stiff personality, and no common touch. He’s known nothing but wealth and privilege his whole life. When he says “I’m not worried about the poor,” there’s little doubt that he means it.
Part of Romney’s problem is that he wants so badly to present himself as he thinks people want to see him. And he’s proven he’s more than willing to tell people anything they want to hear. It’s no wonder he comes off as fake, because he is. His handlers wind him up and say go talk about the middle class so we can steal some of Obama’s thunder. He tries, but somehow it comes across as plastic, and unfeeling, again because it is.
However, don’t count Romney out yet. The Romborg is nothing if not a model of ruthless efficiency, and Mitt Romney does believe in evolution. Certainly the money raining down on him now and throughout the campaign will help him in getting his message more finely tuned. Who knows, they might even raise enough dough to give him a humanity transplant.
Sure, Romney only needs two or three more of these kinds of stupid-ass statements , and he can be labeled with that Biden-esque epithet of being a “gaffe machine.” But the Obamas are still gonna need every penny of that $500 million; and there better be some big-time SuperPac action too, because in the closing weeks of the campaign, Romney will go fracking nuclear on Obama’s ass with negative ads.
Yes, it’s a long road to November, but to put what’s at stake in the early part of the campaign -- First impressions matter most, and most people don’t know Romney yet. Define him as an out-of-touch, elite, uncaring, fancy smantzy, Caymen-Island stashing Wall Street rich guy, who doesn’t give two shits about anybody but his own family, clan, Church, and rich friends.
Romney’s certainly playing the fool, because keeping him in the Mitness Protection Program for the better part of a year didn’t exactly help him prepare for talking to the press on camera. Now that its February, Romney’s fighting on two fronts while having to do on the job training. But ensuring his positioning this way could mean an overall lower cost for the Obama campaign, perhaps as much of a discount of 20 to 30% of the total cost. Imagine what a portion of that donor money could do in tipping the balance of the House back to the Dems.
Define your opponent early and often.