Maybe we really will look back on September 17 as the day that Mitt Romney definitively lost the presidential campaign. If so, I think it’s less likely to be because of the secret video recording of Romney’s comments at a private fundraiser at the Boca Raton estate of hedge fund manger Marc Leder than it is the hastily called and poorly executed Romney press conference at the end of the day.
To recap: At 4 pm Eastern time, Mother Jones’ David Corn reported on (and vouched for the authenticity of) the video in which, among other things, Romney said:
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what.”
Campaign reporters and analysts immediately jumped on the story, focusing on Romney’s “47 percent” comments. (MSNBC’s Ed Schultz played the tape at least four times during his hour-long show, starting at 8 pm Eastern last night.) But that was just the lede of Corn’s story. Corn wrote another 10-12 paragraphs and embedded four additional clips of Romney speaking at the fundraiser, and ended the story with a bold print teaser: “COMING SOON: More from the secret Romney video”.
The Romney campaign brain trust (already reeling from a Politico story the night before citing chapter and verse of the campaign’s missteps and dissension) decided to send the candidate out for a hastily called 10 pm (ET) press conference to try to quell the rising storm.
At the press conference, Gov. Romney took a grand total of…3 questions, responding only to the “47 percent” remarks before walking off the stage, looking pale and shaken. (If you think I’m overstating how bad Romney looked, watch the video here and decide for yourself.)
But the worst moment of the day came not quite halfway through Romney’s 4 minute press conference when Romney—without prompting from the assembled reporters said, “We don’t even have the question given the snippet there, nor the full response, and I hope the person who has the video would put out the full material…”. (Starting at 1:44 of this clip.)
Two things:
- By the time Romney went out to give his press conference, a longer video excerpt that included the question had been released, and broadcast repeatedly on cable news shows. That’s just poor staff work to send a candidate out to the wolves without knowing the full extent of the damage. If the news is bad enough that it requires an emergency late night press conference with the candidate, then it’s bad enough to sit the candidate down for 30 minutes so he can watch and digest all of the damaging videotape that’s in heavy rotation on cable news.
- If you’ve spent the past two decades in the political spotlight (starting with running against Ted Kennedy in the most high-profile Senate race of 1994, heading the Salt Lake City Olympics, governing a state whose capital is in a top 10 media market, and spending the past 8 years running for president), then you don’t throw down challenges to unknown opponents who are damaging your campaign.
“I hope the person who has the video would put out the full material…”???!!!
First, there are already at least four more damaging clips that the campaign media hasn’t begun to digest. (Remember that Corn’s story wasn’t published until 4 pm ET yesterday.) Second, unless the Romney campaign in in the habit of videotaping all of the candidate’s closed-door events, there’s no way Gov. Romney knows what else is on that videotape.
This could be Romney’s “Follow me around” moment. And that’s why yesterday may have ended Romney’s chances of getting elected president.
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/