Okay, this is the worst day of Mitt's life.
In response to Priorities USA's ad featuring a GST Steel worker who lost his job and then his wife to cancer after Bain closed down the company, the Romney campaign responded by saying the couple should have moved to Massachussetts so they could have had Romneycare.
A Mitt Romney spokesperson offered an unusual counterattack Wednesday to an ad in which a laid-off steelworker blames the presumptive GOP nominee for his family losing health care: If that family had lived in Massachusetts, it would have been covered by the former governor’s universal health care law.
“To that point, if people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care,” Andrea Saul, Romney’s campaign press secretary, said during an appearance on Fox News. “There are a lot of people losing their jobs and losing their health care in President [Barack] Obama’s economy.”
Up till now mentioning Romneycare has been strictly off limits, so Saul's rebuttal is quite strange indeed.
The campaign has shied from reminding voters of Romney’s landmark achievement as governor because it so closely resembles “Obamacare” — and was in fact a model for the national law. Romney has said repeatedly that he does not wish to force his plan onto other states. Romney has justified the law to conservatives by insisting that it worked for his state, but he wouldn’t ask other states to follow his lead.
July was called Romney's worst month ever by TPM, who offered a handy
timeline. But this unforced out-loud mention of Romneycare by the Romney campaign - which was supposed to be off limits - has conservatives
reeling.
Conservatives quickly dubbed Saul’s rebuttal a serious misstep by the campaign.
LIke
this:
Then the Romney campaign decided to sabotage itself with a mind numbingly bit of spin that may mark the day the Romney campaign died.
Defending Romney and combatting the ad, Romney spokesman Andrea Saul . . . let’s go to the quotes
“To that point, if people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care,” Andrea Saul, Romney’s campaign press secretary, said during an appearance on Fox News. “There are a lot of people losing their jobs and losing their health care in President [Barack] Obama’s economy.”
Conservatives have put aside their distrust of Romney on this issue in the name of beating Barack Obama. They thought he and his campaign team had gotten the message and the hints. Consider the scab picked, the wound opened, and the distrust trickling out again.
About the only thing more stupid in terms of building bridges with the right would be to say something nice about fetal stem cell research.
Start your watches for that one!
And:
Housebreaking Romney: The Importance of Being Vocal
by Eric Erickson
Mitt Romney’s ardent supporters are fit to be tied today. Andrea Saul cited Romneycare approvingly, conservatives rightly piled on, and Romney supporters are defending the guy.
“You’re hurting him,” cried one.
“Thanks for making this the big story of the day, Jackass,” cried another.
Andrea Saul made this the big story of the day. She is hurting Romney. She is an official voice of the campaign. This was an unforced error of monumental idiocy and the blowback is deserved, appropriate, and — most importantly — absolutely necessary.
As Dan McLaughlin noted on twitter
Precisely.
And Rush Limbaugh
called ita goldmine for Obama:
Limbaugh was literally left sputtering as he contemplated the Romney response.
Andrea Saul’s appearance on Fox was a potential gold mine for Obama supporters,” he said. “They can say, ‘Romneycare was the basis for our health care.’”
Get the popcorn ready!
7:53 PM PT: And now Ann Coulter has weighed in with her weighty opinion on the Sean Hannity show, calling Saul a 'moron' and suggesting donors withhold any further donations until she is fired:
Coulter charged, “Anyone who donates to Mitt Romney, and I mean the big donors, ought to call Mitt Romney and say if Andrea Saul isn’t fired and off the campaign tomorrow, they are not giving another dime because it is not worth fighting for this man if this is the kind of spokesman he has.”
Heatedly, she went on to say, “There is no point in us going to a convention and pushing for this man if he’s employing morons like this.”
http://foxnewsinsider.com/...
