This just in from Bloomberg -- an intrepid and apparently innocent-looking reporter had breakfast with the Karl Rove/billionaire club last Thursday and wrote up the gleanings.
Apparently Sheelah Kolhatkarwas not asked if she was a journalist, and she didn't lie about her identity -- so she was in there, invited by an invitee, legitimately. After the first address to the 70 or so major donors being asked to donate even more to assuring a Republican victory:
[American] Crossroads Chief Executive Officer Steven Law followed and introduced some of the super PAC’s staff, referring to general counsel Tom Josefiak as “the guy who keeps us from ever having to wear orange jumpsuits.”
Nice to know.
Describing the results of Crossroads studies of undecided voters and their reactions to campaign attempts so far:
The proper strategy, Rove declared, was criticizing Obama without really criticizing him—by reminding voters of what the president said that he was going to do and comparing it to what he’s actually done. “If you keep it focused on the facts and adopt a respectful tone, then they’re gonna agree with you.”
At least one speaker made a very good point -- I wonder what took them so long:
[Haley ]Barbour predicted that the Democrats were going to “get nastier, more negative, more vicious, more personal. We’re going to have to put on our big-boy britches and respond with what the American people want to hear: What are we going to do to solve the problems in this country.”
Even these guys have no respect for Mittens.
Rove spoke almost exclusively about defeating Barack Obama and retaking control of the White House. There was sparse praise for Mitt Romney—either as a candidate or as a future leader and policy maker.
I tell you, friends, they aim to buy this country. What do they expect to gain for the amount of money invested?
Barbour made the final pitch. “You all give so unbelievably generously. But you know what, I don’t have any compunction about looking you in the eye and asking for more,” he said. He compared the importance of a donation to American Crossroads in this cycle to donations made to “the charity hospital” or a “big not-for-profit cancer research program that you give to.”
“This is a high-stakes election,” he continued. “The consequences are greater than any election, and I know everybody in here wants their children and grandchildren to inherit the same country we did. I honestly believe those are the stakes.”
Back to a nostalgia for an America that never was -- except to the ones with the money to buy it.