Still basking in the afterglow of better than expected fundraising numbers, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign sent their new press secretary, Kevin Madden (Tom DeLay's former communications director), on Hardball yesterday to keep the momentum going. Romney found new respect among the political elite this week by bringing in impressive amounts of campaign cash, but doubts about the former Massachusetts governor's foreign-policy credentials have yet to be addressed. And if Madden's performance on Hardball was any indication, Romney's views on national defense, and particularly on the U.S. occupation of Iraq, consist of little more than empty catchphrases and sound bites echoing the Bush Administration's failed policies. Below the fold: Chris Matthews skewers Romney's hapless press secretary...
It was only a couple of minutes into the interview when Chris Matthews started getting annoyed. After prompting Madden to talk about Iraq, then listening to crap like "the Governor talks about going out there and seeing what we can do," Matthews stopped him. That's when the following exchange took place:
Matthews: Is his worldview the same as Bush's? Would he have taken us into Iraq?
Madden: When he goes out to talk to people, he talks about the global jihad. We have to recognize the threat we were facing when we went into Iraq and what we sought to eradicate...
and on like that...blah blah "global jihad" blah blah "Islamofascists"...
So Matthews starts to get testy and cuts him off again:
Matthews: You're doing what a lot of people do. I understand why you're doing it, but stop doing it. Talk about Iraq, not the global jihad. Does your candidate, yes or no, support the decision President Bush made to go into Iraq?
Madden: He does. He does support that decision.
Matthews: Okay. what's the difference between the two men, him and the guy we have now?
Madden: Here's what you can't extract, you can't extract that Iraq is part of a larger global war against jihad.
Matthews: But he would have taken us into Iraq and what would he have done differently?
Again, Romney's press secretary tries to evade the question...blah blah, "post-9/11 world" blah blah "WMD" blah blah "we had to act"...
Wait a minute! WMD? Now Madden has really caught the attention of the Hardball host. Chris stops him and asks the billion-dollar question:
What evidence did we have that he had nuclear weapons? What evidence did we have? I just want to know what you're talking about.
Again Madden avoids answering the question and actually tries to defend Bush for what we all know now was the manipulation of intelligence concerning WMD. He starts muttering about the U.N and Congress and how "they all made a collective decision." Chris couldn't take it any more:
This is frustrating. Are you just talking or can you answer the question? Do you have any evidence that he had nuclear weapons and was building nuclear weapons? Because I can't find it.
Madden: I'm not here as a national security expert on what the intelligence was....
GAME OVER! Is this really the best that the Romney campaign can do? Faced with the most important issue of the day, all we get is Bush-like platitudes and empty rhetoric. Do any of the Republican presidential candidates understand that this isn't 2002 and that voters are looking for specific, intelligent answers, not meaningless slogans? How can they not get that there is no margin left in defending any aspect of Bush's foreign policy?
Video of the entire pitiful interview is available on the Hardball site.