Howard Kurtz - Daily Beast and Jay Bookman - AJC weigh in on Romney's fake presidency

[Laura PourMeADrink]

THE DAILY BEAST - HOWARD KURTZ
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/12/mitt-romney-s-ill-timed-assault-on-president-obama-as-americans-are-killed-abroad.html

Mitt Romney’s Ill-Timed Assault on President Obama as Americans Are Killed Abroad
by Howard Kurtz Sep 12, 2012 10:06 AM EDT
By ripping the administration as U.S. diplomats were being killed abroad, the GOP nominee risks looking insensitive. Howard Kurtz examines the fallout.

Mitt Romney may have pulled the trigger too quickly.

By slamming the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in Libya, the Republican nominee has given the appearance of exploiting an international tragedy. Whether his criticism is warranted or not, the timing seems insensitive—as if Romney is more interested in scoring political points than mourning the deaths of U.S. diplomats.

ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION - JAY BOOKMAN
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/09/12/romney-claims-obama-sympathizes-with-attack-on-u-s/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog

Romney claims Obama sympathizes with attack on U.S.
9:55 am September 12, 2012, by Jay

UPDATE 10:20: In a press conference, Romney just claimed that “it is never too early to condemn” attacks on U.S. personnel. Apparently, “never too early” means condemning the attacks before they have even occurred. He also made it pretty clear that no apology for his statements will be forthcoming.

He is simply wrong on this. Wrong factually, wrong politically, wrong as a matter of simple decency. He has bungled this badly, and is doubling down on the bungle.
With four American diplomats dead in Libya, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, the United States has in effect come under attack overseas. The response of the Mitt Romney campaign has been to accuse the Obama administration of sympathizing with the attackers.

That charge is grotesque. It is also factually incorrect. It can be made correct only by going back in time and rearranging events to suit the Romney narrative, and that is not going to happen.

[LondonReign2]

1. "Whether his criticism is warranted or not"

Hey Howie Kurtz -- FUCK YOU!

[Spazito]

2. Yep, I echo your sentiments...

Fuck off, Kurtz, you pandering POS.

[truebrit71]

5. No shit....Howie is fucking dreadful...

...a gormless simpleton eager not to upset the flow of invitations to swank parties with the political insiders that rely on his fence-sitting platitudes to maintain the murkiness of the water ..

In other words, he's a Grade-A douche..

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. Glass half full? an overall anti-romney statement

[Spazito]

4. When Kurtz says "Whether his criticism is warranted or not..." is, in effect, telegraphing...

the criticism was warranted which is total bullshit. Note that the rest of that sentence by Kurtz uses the word "seems" as opposed to a declaratory statement using "was". No glass half full there, imo.

"Whether his criticism is warranted or not, the timing seems insensitive..."

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Not quite, he is telegraphing

What happens in us politics in a international crisis...

Not everything written is anti Obama.

In this one Kurtz is right. Romney bungled this, majorly.

[Spazito]

9. I disagree, Kurtz was, in effect, trying to soften the overwhelming condemnation of Romney...

by the words and phrases he used. He has a pattern of doing that when it comes to criticism of repubs. He has no such pattern of softening when it come to Democrats.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Well, he failed

And failed hard, didn't he, I mean he highlighted the problems with the statement...hardly softening anything.

[Spazito]

13. If you mean Kurtz, that is open to question given the very discussion we are having...

whether his wording was an attempt to soften his criticism by using words like "whether the criticism is warranted or not" and inserting the word "seems" or whether it wasn't an attempt to do as I posited.

We can agree to disagree on this I think as, in the big picture, Romney is being roundly condemned for his actions and words on this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Another commenter just compared to the Lehman moment

for McCain. If true, Romney just lost the election.

[Spazito]

15. I must confess, I had to google Lehman + McCain to refresh my memory...

and, after doing so, I agree, this is, imo, akin to the Lehman moment. Adding to that, this photo of Romney grinning after his press conference:




and it certainly should result in Romney losing the election and losing it big, imo.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. The smile is the worst part

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Re-read what he wrote

Kurtz is very critical here.

And the point is valid...the critique might be valid, but the way it was done, was tone deaf to say the least...which again, is very critical of Romney.

[randome]

8. That's as much as we're going to get from Kurtz. And, actually, that's a lot.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

12. thanks....all I guess I was saying. I mean, he didn't say "go romney !! you are a true

statesman to speak out so eloquently" :&gt

[agentS]

10. R-Money and gang remind of a famous blooper when a guy

puts a dart into a blow gun, but forgets to not breathe in through the blowgun, and winds up choking on the dart.
This is kinda what happened to Mitt The Twit here.

[central scrutinizer]

17. FIRE!, ready, aim

Uh, Willard, that is not the correct order.