Mitt Romney (Scott Audette/Reuters)
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney spent a lot of
time and energy on his "job creator" claim, the idea that he created 100,000 jobs through his work at Bain Capital, a claim that so many were able to refute that even
Sarah Palin had to point out he was full of it. Rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry have had a field day with it, joining in the "show us the jobs" chorus.
The pushback from the media and from his rivals has made Romney, well, pull a Romney. "Did I say that?" Steve Benen has been tracking him.
As recently as two weeks ago, Romney had a fairly specific number in mind when it came to the jobs created by his vulture-capitalist firm.
“I’m very happy in my former life; we helped create over 100,000 new jobs.”
A few days ago, the total dropped.
“People here in the state know that in the work that I had, we started a number of businesses, invested in many others, and that over all created tens of thousands jobs.”
This morning, the Romney campaign unveiled a new ad, which moved the goal post again. Greg Sargent picked up on the new message:
The ad claims Romney only created “thousands of jobs,” which is the latest shift in his campaign’s claims.
Here's the ad, his response to the attacks on his Bain tenure:
As Benen says, what are we going to hear out of Romney next? That he created "dozens" of jobs? As much as he tries to change the subject by ridiculously attacking his rivals for “putting free markets on trial,” Romney's shrinking job creator claims are showing just how full of it he is.