So, how bad are things looking for Mitt Romney at this point? Well we all know about the polls and the labor numbers and the good press that President Obama has garnered from his appropriate handling of Super-Storm Sandy (sorry for the alliteration I didn’t name the storm) but you have got to really see the writing on the wall when the Washington Post Editorial Board post an article four days before election day under the title “Mitt Romney’s campaign insults voters”.
To quote Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, that is gonna leave a mark!
But it doesn’t stop there, oh no, not by a long shot! Check this out:
How, other than an assumption that voters are too dim to remember what Mr. Romney has said across the years and months, to account for his breathtaking ideological shifts? He was a friend of immigrants, then a scourge of immigrants, then again a friend. He was a Kissingerian foreign policy realist, then a McCain-like hawk, then a purveyor of peace. He pioneered Obamacare, he detested Obamacare, then he found elements in it to cherish. Assault weapons were bad, then good. Abortion was okay, then bad. Climate change was an urgent problem; then, not so much. Hurricane cleanup was a job for the states, until it was once again a job for the feds.
Bing! Pow! Socko!
The Editors lay into Ol’ Mitt like that for his ads, for his refusal to disclose the names of his bundlers, and for failing to disclose his tax policy. They beat him like the rented mule of a red headed step-child.
But they really lay on the hickory switch when it comes to Mitt’s tax proposals:
And then there has been his chronic, baldly dishonest defense of mathematically impossible budget proposals. He promised to cut income tax rates without exploding the deficit or tilting the tax code toward the rich — but he refused to say how he could bring that off. When challenged, he cited “studies” that he maintained proved him right. But the studies were a mix of rhetoric, unrealistic growth projections and more serious economics that actually proved him wrong.
The Washington Post, being who they are, don’t let the President get away unscathed. As with their endorsement of Mr. Obama they are clear to say they are not thrilled with him but he is clearly the better of the two choices for the Editors:
But Mr. Obama has a record; voters know his priorities. His budget plan is inadequate, but it wouldn’t make things worse.
Mr. Romney, by contrast, seems to be betting that voters have no memories, poor arithmetic skills and a general inability to look behind the curtain. We hope the results Tuesday prove him wrong.
What makes this more interesting than just seeing a group of people I usually find to be pretty much to the right of me politically piss on the Republican Candidate form a great height is that the WaPo is not just a national paper, it is the major paper for a part of the country that includes one of the battle ground states that Mittens must win (assuming as it looks today that he will lose Ohio) in order to unseat President Obama.
While the Northern part of Virginia is more blue, there are a lot of Virginians in other parts of the state that do read the Post and will take this argument about the inherent dishonesty of the Romney campaign to heart.
In a closely contested swing state that has the possibility of making a big difference.
It might matter nationally too. The last few days has seen a big push by the Romney campaign to roll out the idea that Mitt will be all sweetness and light in working with Democrats, if only middle America will give him the chance.
Anyone reading this knows that this is the same BS that George W. Bush deployed to such great effect in his campaign and from Romney it is just as sincere are Bush was. Having a major paper call him out as a liar, a prevaricator and someone who clearly thinks the voters are nitwits may very well sway votes in other places.
After all he is the standard bearer for the whole Republican Party. If he is called out as a liar, what does that say to folks who are already souring on the likes of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock?
I am feeling pretty good about this election, but things like this little nasty-gram from the WaPo Editors just make it that much better.
The floor is yours.