Mitt Romney sure did pack a whole bunch of FAIL into his interview with Chris Wallace this week. Here's some more:
WALLACE: But according to the polls, there is a gender gap. You lead the president among men, he leads you among women. Specifically, how much do you think Congressman Akin's remark about, quote, "legitimate rape," hurts you?
ROMNEY: Oh, I think it was a terrible statement on his part. I think it was uniformed. I think it was outrageous and offensive. I've asked him to get out of the race. I think I have distanced myself as -- from the kind of thing he said as far as I possibly can.
Oh, sure. Mitt really tried to distance himself as far as possible from Akin with this
oh-so-bold condemnation from his spokesperson that "Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape."
But since no one actually thought that was much of a condemnation, Mitt slept on it and decided he didn't just disagree—he was also "offended":
“Congressman’s Akin comments on rape are insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong,” Romney said. “Like millions of other Americans, we found them to be offensive.” [...]
“I have an entirely different view,” Romney said. “What he said is entirely without merit and he should correct it.”
Ooooh, tough talk, Mitt. Tough talk. That's really showing 'em. Which is why it took yet
another day for Mitt to decide he was offended enough to call on Akin to drop out with even more FAIL:
"As I said yesterday, Todd Akin’s comments were offensive and wrong and he should very seriously consider what course would be in the best interest of our country. Today, his fellow Missourians urged him to step aside, and I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race."
However, as David Nir pointed out, Mitt couldn't even get that right:
But real Missouri Republicans don't want Akin to go anywhere: SurveyUSA's snap poll showed, by a 52-33 margin, that they still want him to run, and that question was only asked after a battery of damaging information was read to respondents.
And now the Missouri Republican delegates are
none too pleased with Mitt for that. But eh, whatever—facts, shmacts. And besides, it's all the Democrats' fault:
ROMNEY: And it's a -- it obviously is being used by Democrats to try and cast a shadow on our entire party and it's not. It's -- the leaders of our party have pretty much unanimously said, you know, Mr. Akin, get out of the race, you're -- you've -- you said something which is highly offensive.
Right. The leaders of the party are unanimous—except for the leaders of the party who aren't. And how mean of Democrats to point out to voters just how extreme the Republican Party is:
WALLACE: The Democrats are running some ads right now. It looks like your campaign logo, except it's Romney, Ryan, Akin.
ROMNEY: Well, it really is sad, isn't it? With all the issues that America faces, for the Obama campaign to continue to stoop to such a low level, they understand and -- and they're -- they're wise enough to understand that people in -- like myself, who have asked Todd Akin to get out of the race, are doing so because we vehemently disagree with what he said and believe it hurts our party and, I think, is damaging to women.
Yes, with all the issues we face, the Obama campaign should really be focusing on the serious stuff that Romney's focused on—like making birther jokes and promising to get rid of Planned Parenthood. Because that's what really matters.