In comments to various diaries I have occasionally mentioned a friend of mine, an old college buddy who long ago went over to the Dark Side. Partly it's because he inherited a pile, and partly it's because he never spent long enough in the real world to understand why Mr. Romney's worldview is so desperately, woefully myopic.
My old friend's one ambition in life is to be an insider, and I'm pretty sure his Republican party pals have figured that out. So here's how I think it works with him. He writes big checks, and in return they feed him their vetted talking points. He's smart enough that they probably let him repeat those talking points in his own words. And as an extra bonus, I suspect they tell him that he can test sort of provisional talking points by disseminating them on his Faceplant page, so long as he reports back on how it goes.
So it came as a bit of surprise to me that for most of the day today, my friend had been silent on the Mother Jones videos. To me, that says the Republican powers-that-be are in a panic, and for most of the day didn't even know what messages to test. Well, my friend has finally posted something, so we know what they're thinking, and we can reveal it below the Fickle Squiggle of Fate.
It turns out that the best my friend can do is that Monkey Cage post that says that even the most catastrophic campaign gaffes don't usually turn elections. The money quote:
The best case for saying that “gaffes matter” is that actual voters are persuaded to change their minds because of the gaffes. If they don’t, then it’s tough to argue that “gaffes” are really “game-changers.” And, in fact, usually voters don’t change their minds.
In other words, while Mr. Romney's statements were truly gaffe-tastic, they actually don't matter, because history says that such things don't cause voters to change their minds.
So there we have it, folks, the view from the non-reality-based community. The number one Republican talking point on the Romney videos is to say that since politicians' gaffes don't usually change votes, it's all ok (from the Republican point of view).
I have to admit that I had expected some impassioned defense of Mr Romney's remarks, or at least a repetition of Mr Romney's lame one. Instead, the best my friend could offer was the tacit admission that Mr. Romney's comments would be disastrous for his cause, offering in mitigation only the suggestion that they ultimately won't matter. If the Republicans are down to trying to sustain themselves on such thin gruel, then their case is desperate indeed.
Wouldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of people.