Romney Attack Video Goes Places Democrats Only Dream of Going
Posted by: Dan Beucke on January 11, 2012 at 12:00 PM
Ronald Reagan famously popularized the Eleventh Commandment, “thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Now that my colleague Josh Green has obtained a copy of the highly anticipated attack video on Mitt Romney by Newt Gingrich supporters, it’s clear the Eleventh Amendment is not only no longer operative. It’s been replaced by something akin to “thou shalt roll with anything that smites thy GOP neighbor, shewing no mercy.”
Josh says the 28-minute video, funded by the organization Winning Our Future, portrays the misery of workers purportedly fired as a result of Romney’s Bain Capital restructurings. (A snippet is viewable on the group’s web site; screen grab above.) Romney is portrayed as “rich beyond imagination” and out of touch with common folks. It has Romney laughing while he says, “Make a profit. That’s what it’s all about, right?” Many Republicans and other supporters of laissez-faire capitalism might quibble only with the last word of that statement, possibly suggesting “duh!” instead. But Romney’s rivals are desperate to derail his Inevitability Express, and have seized on a narrative of a “ruthless capitalist” heading into the Jan. 21 primary in South Carolina, where unemployment lingers at 9.9 percent. To add one last kick, Romney is shown in the video speaking … in French.
Josh says several facts — including Romney’s net worth and the number of homes he owns — are misstated. He quotes a consultant who compares the video with the notorious “Swift Boat” treatment that Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry got from an outside political group in 2004.
The Romney campaign says this is “the type of criticism we’ve come to expect from President Obama and his left-wing allies at MoveOn.org.” Indeed, somewhere an Obama campaign official is probably counting the ad dollars they just saved.
