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cali

(114,904 posts)
Mon Jul 16, 2012, 01:23 PM Jul 2012

Mitt Romney's painfully bad week


By David Frum, CNN Contributor


(CNN) -- By any measure, the Mitt Romney for president campaign has had a painfully bad week. What went wrong?

The bad news began Wednesday. That day, Romney addressed the NAACP convention in Houston. The speech was poorly received, so much so that Romney, in an interview that afternoon on Fox Business, told host Neil Cavuto that he had "expected" boos. Some interpreted that comment as proof that Romney had actually wanted to be booed by the NAACP in order to rev up elements of the conservative base.

The Romney campaign next reacted by whispering to the Drudge Report (which acts as a kind of message board for Romney) that it was seriously considering Condoleezza Rice as a running mate. That story excited the press for half a day, until reporters remembered two hard realities: Party conservatives won't accept a pro-choice running mate, and Rice has made repeated public statements of lack of interest in the VP job.


The NAACP story probably moved few votes. But it's interesting in its own right -- and as a warning of the bigger trouble that hit the campaign on Thursday.


The NAACP incident shows a hyperactive campaign war room, overcorrecting one way ("the boos are no big deal; everything's going according to plan!&quot and then overcorrecting the other way ("we weren't trying to generate TV images of racial confrontation; why, look, here's Condi Rice!&quot , spinning and counterspinning without any forethought for how this hour's aggressive statement would sound when the next hour's realities arrived.

<snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/16/opinion/frum-romney-week/
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Mitt Romney's painfully bad week (Original Post) cali Jul 2012 OP
"May have blasted it's own side with lethal friendly fire" SunsetDreams Jul 2012 #1

SunsetDreams

(8,571 posts)
1. "May have blasted it's own side with lethal friendly fire"
Mon Jul 16, 2012, 01:34 PM
Jul 2012

So true! He and his campaign have made things worse.

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