'Help' Romney Didn't Need

As of Sunday, August 12, 2012

I really wasn’t going to do another column about Mitt Romney this week. Really. I promise. But I can’t help it. On Wednesday, they served up a pitch that’s so slow and easy, I just have to take a whack at it.

It all started when Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul responded to an ad that was created by one of those SuperPACs that are so thick on the ground this year. The ad, titled “Understands,” features a former steelworker named Joe Soptic.

The plant where Soptic worked was shut down by Romney’s company, Bain Capital. Soptic lost his health insurance. His wife was diagnosed with cancer and died because, the ad implies, she couldn’t afford to go to the doctor until she got too sick to ignore her symptoms, and by then it was too late. Mrs. Soptic died 22 days after being diagnosed.

“I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he’s done to anyone,” Soptic concludes. “And furthermore, I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned.” Basically, Soptic says, Mitt Romney and his company are responsible for his wife’s death, and the MittBot doesn’t care. Wow. That’s gonna leave a mark.

Now, as it turns out, Soptic’s wife didn’t get sick till several years after Soptic lost his job, and she had health insurance from her own job for part of that time. The aforementioned Ms. Saul pointed that out. But then she stepped in it, big time. “If people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s health care plan,” she told Fox News, “they would have had health care.”

This was most likely true, and to any normal candidate, it would have been a major selling point. But Romney is not a normal candidate. He’s a guy who’s trying very hard to distance himself from his biggest achievement as governor: the health plan that was the model for the national health plan he now vows to repeal, because if he didn’t promise that, he wouldn’t get the nomination.

So saying “Governor Romney’s health care plan might have saved this woman’s life” was actually exactly the wrong thing to say. If you needed any more proof that American politics in 2012 is completely insane, you need look no further than that.

I suppose one can’t blame Ms. Saul too much. After all, when you work for a guy who changes his stances on issues more times that most people change positions in their sleep, it must keep getting harder and harder to keep everything straight.

That didn’t stop the right wing from going completely haywire over the statement. Even more than usual, I mean. Rush Limbaugh said that “Andrea Saul’s appearance on Fox was a potential gold mine for Obama supporters.” Ann Coulter demanded that Saul be fired if Romney ever wanted any more contributions from conservatives.

Erick Erickson of CNN and the flagship right wing blog RedState called it “a mind-numbingly bit of spin [sic] that may mark the day the Romney campaign died.” Erickson noted that the right wing had never really trusted or warmed to Romney, and this wasn’t helping: “Consider the scab picked, the wound opened, and the distrust trickling out again.”

Euuuwww. Nice image there, Erick.

The assertion that this “may mark the day the Romney campaign died” is probably as overwrought as the original ad. But Team Romney does seem to be experiencing the Death of a Thousand Cuts, almost all of them self-inflicted. They’re creating an impression that’s worse for them than the perception that they’re flip-floppers or that they don’t tell the truth — they look inept.

People may be willing to overlook a little flip-flopping or even a little mendacity as something that politicians on both sides do. But when one of the overriding themes of your campaign is that your guy is this cool, experienced, uber-competent CEO who can manage us out of the crisis, ineptitude may be the only unforgivable sin.

When your message is “You’re in a hole and our guy can get you out of it,” it doesn’t help if you act like you don’t know which end of the shovel is which.

This is especially true when you’re going up against the guy that ended the Iraq War, got real health care reform done when no one thought he could, gave the orders that killed Osama bin Laden, saved the auto industry, and presided over 29 months of job growth despite an obstructive House determined to keep things bad for political gain.

AND he can sing on-key.

Dusty Rhoades lives, writes and practices law in Carthage. Contact him at dustyr@nc.rr.com.

More like this story

nothingspecial 9 months, 1 week ago

Don't you just love that last paragraph? That one and the "Erik Erickson of CNN are the two paragraphs he wants you to read and remember. He really thinks people are feeble minded enough or watching TV enough to believe that crap. CNN and Dusty. No need to become defensive for Mitt over those two.

Bentpan 9 months, 1 week ago

"presided over 29 months of job growth " And yet here we are with over 150,000 fewer jobs and over 1,000,000 more people than when Obama took office " the guy that ended the Iraq War" Bush's surge ended the Iraq war, Obama was the one who allowed the US backed Iraq government to kick us out. " saved the auto industry" by robbing the American taxpayer ( The bailout repaid by additional taxpayer funds, a bait and switch to fool the gullible) and perpetrating grand theft on bond holders for the benefit of Unions. "gave the orders that killed Osama bin Laden" OBL was run to ground by the same teams established during the Bush administration, as for giving the order , is there anyone in America who wouldn't? As for Saul, you're right, the woman must be mind numbingly stupid But make no mistake conservatives WILL come out in force to support the Romney/Ryan ticket and Obama will be retired this coming Jan..

skylinefirepest 9 months, 1 week ago

Dusty...twenty nine months of job growth...You love Obama and you are too smart a man to believe that crap!! It might show that the jobs increased a few thousand each month while MILLIONS are still out of work. How can we show almost thirty months of job growth when the unemployment figures don't come close to backing up the supposition that people are getting back to work???? More people quit looking for work than were put back to work!! More Obama administration blatant lies!! Moonchild even knows better than that even with that bad old stuff that she's had in the closet for thirty years.

OldPilot 9 months, 1 week ago

Easy pitch. Good swing. Home run!

dustyrhoades 9 months, 1 week ago

Thanks OldPilot!

Courseaire 9 months, 1 week ago

We really don't need another piece on Romney by you, as one is the same as the other. I'm still waiting for a piece from you on Obama.

Tbucket 9 months, 1 week ago

Ah rusty Dusty. You should have stopped at your first statement, "I really wasn’t going to do another column about Mitt Romney this week." Its ok with me that you didn't stop, I did and I'm not going back, as Paul Harvey would say, "... for the rest of the story."

Outta here ....

Jason 9 months, 1 week ago

Rusty you fool, the Massachusetts plan is nothing like that socialized medicine Obamacare. It isn't, it isn't, it isn't. Ask Ryan, he'll show you the charts to prove it!

Jason 9 months, 1 week ago

Did I need to put "sarcasm" in parentheses at the end of that last post?

Newton 9 months, 1 week ago

@ Bentpan. Thanks for the response but you didn't mention the most staggering number.

We have approximately 23 million people who are either classified as unemployed, under-employed or discouraged workers (people who have given up looking for a job). If Dusty wants to have a real discussion about the success of Maobama, we should start at that number, instead we're playing "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". The only way Obama can get reelected is by redirecting our focus away from his dismal performance.