Mitt Romney would like you to meet Michele Davis, GOP PR flak extraordinaire, to answer any further questions you may have about his tax-dodging, vulture capital spending ways at Bain.
The Romney campaign is hiring a corporate public relations specialist to help guide their response to questions about the candidate’s time in the private sector with Bain Capital, Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith reports.
In addition to her job as Dick Armey's Communication director from 1997 to 2001 and a stint as Assistant Treasury Secretary for Public Affairs, Ms Davis was nominated by the Bush Administration as Deputy Assistant to the President and
Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Global Outreach. This position amounted to selling the public on the Iraq War and other Bush initiatives. Her
last government position was
Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Director of Policy Planning in the U.S. Department of Treasury, where she advised Secretary Hank Paulson. She was also a senior member of the Treasury team addressing the credit crisis of 2007-2009 in 2008. She was portrayed by Cynthia Nixon in Too Big to Fail.
Portrayed in a film by Cynthia Nixon? Advisor to Hank Paulson? That's some hot PR property you've retained, Mr . Romney.
Here's Ms Davis hard at work:
Before a January, 2002, appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, Treasury Department public relations chief Michele Davis sent Secretary O'Neill a 3-page memo explaining how he should deal with host Tim Russert. The memo, which coaches O'Neill on how to avoid the substance of Russert's questions, is a classic of political spin. O'Neill was told to answer the first question by praising the President's economic stimulus proposals, 'no matter the question.' 'You need to interject the President's message,' Davis coached O'Neill, 'even if the question has nothing to do with that.'"
It's heartening to see how Romney has so much respect for the voting public that he's gone and hired someone who
specializes in evading reporters' questions. As with other aspects of his campaign, Romney is relying heavily here on the tactics of the Bush Administration. An
excerpt from
All the President's Spin, by Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer and Brendan Nyhan regarding Michele Davis--again, focusing on the seeemingly archetypal preparation of Paul O'Neill for his encounter with Tim Russert:
First, to prepare O’Neill for a February 2001 press conference announcing the President’s fiscal year 2002 budget, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs Michele Davis wrote a memo telling O’Neill, “This event, more than anything you’ve participated in to date, requires that you be monotonously on-message.” Her advice was frank: “Roll-out events like this are the clearest examples of when staying on message is absolutely crucial. Any deviation during the unveiling of the budget will change the way coverage plays out from tomorrow forward. . . . Your remarks should be very focused and your answers during the Q and A should only repeat your remarks.”
Not quite lost on ABC news is an obvious question. Why does Romney have to rely on a political messaging specialist to airbrush his career at Bain Capital?
Critics have already begun to ask why it was necessary to hire anyone – let alone one of the country’s most respected P.R. people – to push back against attacks Romney aides insist have done nothing to hurt their cause.
“I think it’s very odd and unlikely to solve their problem,” said one Beltway Republican.
Whatever "positive" message exists in Romney's campaign is predicated on his supposed business acumen. But apparently he doesn't trust his own instincts enough to respond to questions about Bain without the help of a practiced media filter. Or possibly his campaign is very concerned that its entire rationale is being effectively trashed by the Obama campaign.
Or perhaps Romney has simply found a kindred spirit in someone apparently lacking any moral compunctions or principles whatsoever:
Davis’s time in Washington has taken her from Capitol Hill, where she worked with then Speaker Newt Gingrich to craft the 1994 “Contract With America,” to Fannie Mae, where she worked as a “vice president for regulatory policy” during a period of time when regulators eventually reported that the mortgage financing giant had been engaged in “extensive financial fraud.”
* * *
Davis left Treasury after the 2008 elections to join the private Brunswick firm, where, AdAge explained, she took on yet another touchy cause: Defending BP as it tried in vain to staunch the flow of oil from its busted Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico.
There's an analogy in there somewhere, isn't there?
On second thought, Mr. Romney, ignore the naysayers. You and Michele Davis were meant for each other.
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