I kind of feel bad about mocking this guy, but he’s getting a lot of attention for being a dumbass. It’s his own damn fault for taking anything written in The Daily Caller seriously. It seems that a lot of conservatives are less familiar with our modern electronic contraptions and customs than the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. So, what happened?
Mitt Romney wanted to do a teleconference with news outlets that write about politics. That meant that all the major newspapers and news wires were invited on the call. It also meant that the major political magazines/websites were invited on the call. Little old bloggers like me were not invited on the call. That’s okay, I don’t expect to be taken seriously by Team Romney. In any case, it turned out that Evan McMorris-Santoro of Talking Points Memo and David Corn of Mother Jones actually asked a question. Apparently, no one from any right-wing outfits like the National Review, the Weekly Standard, or Red State knew how to work the keypads on their phones, so the teleconference equipment didn’t put them in the queue to ask any questions.
I’m only half-joking. Matt Lewis of The Daily Caller compiled a list of those whom had asked questions on the Romney call, and then he suggested that the Romney campaign had slighted conservatives by not calling on them. This then prompted the Romney campaign to issue a response explaining how modern teleconference equipment works:
Tonight (as we do with every call) we sent out a media advisory to our regular press list inviting members of the media to join the call. We use a phone conferencing system to manage these calls.
Participants who join the call are then invited to ask a question after the opening comments by pressing “1” on their phones. Question are fielded on a first come, first serve basis. We do not screen out any media organization. Whoever notifies the operator by pressing ”1” first gets to ask their question first.
On tonight’s call we answered every single question in the queue. Every reporter – conservative, liberal or nonpartisan – who wanted to ask a question got to ask one. Organizations that were not called on either didn’t press the number “1” or never joined the call in the first place.
I have participated on these media calls with the White House, and I can ask a question and get it answered right between a question from bigfoot reporters from the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. You know what I do? I press ‘1’ on my keypad when instructed to do so. It’s amazing!!
Having been made to look foolish for complaining about something that was their own damn fault, Romney’s critics scarcely flinched before going back on the offensive. Here’s Datechguy writing an open letter to the Romney campaign.
I do have some questions:
1. Have you requested a corrected from Matt Lewis of the daily caller. (UPDATE..apparently so)
2. Is the campaign planning on arranging for any conference calls with conservative activists and/or bloggers.
3. Given the Romney campaign’s attack on Newt Gingrich as unacceptable to conservatives to what degree outside of conference calls does the Romney Campaign plan to reach out to conservative activists and bloggers to advance that position?
4. Given that the MSM is likely to actively support the democratic nominee in this election as it has in every other what is the logic in accommodating said media in any way?
Thanks
Notice how he didn’t apologize for being a dumbass and making a false allegation against the campaign. He just moves on like it never happened. And then his first question is whether or not Romney’s communications guy has asked for a correction from The Daily Caller or only from his shitty blog. How’s that for an inflated sense of self-importance?
His second question is whether the Romney campaign is going to arrange a conference call with conservative activists and bloggers. Never mind that the Romney campaign just got done explaining that they had just done precisely that and no conservatives had asked any questions. Presumably, Datechguy means a call reserved for bloggers and activists, and one that reaches further down the food chain. The White House does these kinds of calls, where the bigfoot reporters are excluded and the call is off the record. Team Romney may do them, too, but I don’t know that they’ll be too eager to do off the record calls with Datechguy, as he doesn’t seem inclined to give them a fair shake.
In his third question, Datechguy wants to know if he can, I don’t know, meet personally with the Romney campaign, perhaps over coffee. Since teleconferences are apparently inadequate, the Romney campaign must find other ways to reach out to conservatives.
Finally, we get the standard trope about the mainstream media preferring the Democrat in every presidential election, so why even talk to them at all? Why not talk exclusively to shitty bloggers and, maybe, NewsMax and Fox News?
To be fair, progressives ask the administration not to spend much time legitimizing Fox News or, especially, participate in their debates. So, I can understand the sentiment, however deranged it may be. But Romney shouldn’t have to explain why he isn’t replicating the media strategies of Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, and Christine O’Donnell. You can’t declare war on the entire non-politicized news media and run a national political campaign at the same time. If you try, you’ll look like a frightened rabbit, which is already enough of a problem for Mitt Romney when he’s talking to relatively sympathetic reporters, like Bret Baier of Fox News.
This kind of unsophisticated idiocy is not the exclusive possession of the right-wing. If you have even been on an off the record blogger call with the White House, you know what I mean. It can be quite embarrassing listening to the White House have to respectfully respond to grossly misinformed and unfair questions. But they do it because it helps them get their message out and to blunt the effectiveness of friendly-fire. Romney’s outfit might not be as good at playing that game, but I’m sure they’ll keep trying.