Great News, CNN is having a full report and debate on Mitt Romney's flip-flops, and played a segment of this hilarious BIll Clinton riff mocking the new "moderate Mitt," at a Las Vegas campaign stop. It's fun to see how much Bill Clinton truly loves campaigning, especially when, at one point he literally jumps up and down on the stage in delight. (See second video in extended section.)
Bill Clinton Comes Out Swinging, Mocks 'Moderate Mitt': VIDEO
Said Clinton:
I had a different reaction to that first debate than a lot of people did. I mean, I thought, “Wow! Here’s old Moderate Mitt. Where you been, boy, I missed you all these last two years!” But I was paying attention these past two years. And it was like one of these Bain Capital deals where, you know, he’s the closer. So he shows up, doesn’t really know much about the deal and says, “tell me what I’m supposed to say to close.”
Now the problem with this deal is, the deal was made by Severe Conservative Mitt. That was how he described himself for two whole years. Until three or four days before the debate they all got together and said, “hey Mitt, this ship is sinkin’ faster than the Titanic…but people are still frustrated about the economy, they want it fixed yesterday, so just show up with a sunny face and say I didn’t say all that stuff I said for the last two years. I don’t have that tax plan I’ve had for the last two years, you gonna believe me or your lyin’ eyes here? Come on. What are you doin’?” And if I’d been the President, I might have said, “well, I hate to get in the way of this, I missed you.”
Below globalgrind has a better description of the event setting, and a slightly different section of the video.
ZING! Bubba Bashes Romney! (VIDEO)
Speaking to a crowd of 2,000 at a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, former President Bill Clinton used his folksy orator skills to recharge the Democratic base and poke fun at Romney's habitual flip-flopping. He pointed out that the views Romney expressed at the debate were much more centered than the far-right campaign he's been pushing over the last year.
"I had a different reaction to that first debate than a lot of people did," Clinton told nearly 2,000 supporters at a campaign rally for Obama and other Democrats. I thought, 'Wow, here's old moderate Mitt. Where ya been, boy?'"
Bubba continued:
"It was like one of these Bain Capital deals, you know, where he's the closer. So he shows up, doesn't really know much about the deal and says, 'Tell me what I'm supposed to say to close.' The problem with this deal is the deal was made by severe conservative Mitt," alluding to Romney's description of himself in February as having been a "severely conservative" governor in Massachusetts.
The crowd fed right into Clinton's funny attacks. Clinton also impersonated Romney, saying:
"I don't have that tax plan I had for the last two years. Are you going to believe me or your lyin' eyes here?"
3:41 PM PT: The first half of the first video is getting fantastic play on CNN where I've seen it five times this afternoon. And, even better they are often playing in conjunction with almost an expose style discussion of Romney's attempt to flip flop on his abortion stance saying he will not advance any "legislative restrictions" to abortion, while at the same time reassuring his base in conservative rags that he will appoint Supreme Court Justices that will overturn Roe v Wade. (As I describe Ralph Reed explicitly letting this cat out of the bag in a recent post.)
I'm surprised at CNN's leadership on this issue. I usually shift over to MSNBC for this time of the evening, but have stuck with CNN just to see if this is a trend or a blip.
4:10 PM PT: Speaking of the Old Romney, LaurenMonica just reminded us not to forget the many issues Team Romney is trying to distract our attention from, like his disgraceful repudiation of the great tradition starting by his father of candidates for president releasing 12 years of income taxes.
I'd like to apologize to the community for my computer breaking last week so I missed the opportunity to highlight the smaltzy BS from Ann Romney when she waxed on about how heart-warming it is that Mitt writing "Dad" on the pad before every debate so he will not do anything he father wouldn't be proud. How, then, does she explain Mitt disrespecting one of his father proudest and most important contribution to the role of transparency in democracies of releasing 12 years of income taxes?