More Romney Context Fail

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from Dan Amira at NYMag: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/mitt-romney-hoisted-by-own-context-less-petard.html


Mitt Romney Hoisted With His Own Contextless Petard

The Romney campaign thinks they have a winning Obama gaffe on their hands. At a Univision election forum this afternoon, President Obama admitted that one thing he learned in his first term is that "you can’t change Washington from inside, only from the outside." Within the hour, Romney was blasting Obama in a campaign speech, claiming that Obama "threw in the white flag of surrender." After all, Obama had promised to bring change to Washington. If he's admitting that he can't, then he's clearly resigned himself to defeat.

For something like the 60th time this election season, however, the Romney line of attack relies on ignoring some important context. A fuller look at Obama's remarks clarifies his message:

“I’ve learned some lessons. Most important is you can’t change Washington from inside, only from the outside. That’s how some of our biggest accomplishments like health care got done — mobilizing the American people."

Whether or not you agree with Obama's take on how health-care reform was accomplished (Ezra Klein, for one, notes that it didn't really happen that way at all), it's clear that, far from admitting that he had failed to enact change, Obama was actually describing how he'd done it, which couldn't be any further from "throwing in the white flag of surrender." And it seems to be the exact same philosophy espoused by Obama back in November of 2007. The presidency, Obama said, "involves having a vision for where the country needs to go ... and then being able to mobilize and inspire the American people to get behind that agenda for change.”

Of course, the Romney campaign and its allies won't mention the context of Obama's remarks. Context is a pesky thing. Get rid of it, and you can make it appear that a candidate believes anything. Take this line (from Romney in December of 2007) for example:

"I don't think you change Washington from the inside. I think you change it from the outside."

read: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/mitt-romney-hoisted-by-own-context-less-petard.html


The Democrats ?@TheDemocrats
Apparently, Mitt Romney believes that change only comes from Washington insiders and politicians.
http://j.mp/OHDNEn

TruthTeam2012@truthteam2012
Barack Obama on change: pic.twitter.com/wxvHowNE

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Apparently this is some HUGE gaffe according to the right wing.

Romney will now take a huge lead in the polls and won't look back.

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2. I guess the campaign trusted Romney

. . . to speak up and actually TELL THEM he'd said the exact same thing four years ago. Just one fumble after another. Who gave them the ball, anyway?