Wintery Knight concludes his post titled Mitt Romney gaffe: Romney fails miserably in interview with Bret Baier: “Is this thin-skinned RINO the person we want in the Oval office in 2012? Why elect a clone of Obama?”
Romney tells Baier his interview was overly aggressive:
Romney-Baier interview part 1
Commentary:
At about 2.00 Baier cites videos of Romney taking contradictory positions. At about 2.20 Romney tells Baier that he can read his book to discover his convictions about the issues. Only Romney edited his own book when it was released in soft-cover to remove a line about national healthcare reform.
At about 3.15 Romney infers that criticism of his ideological cross-dressing is the result of “Democratic ads breaking through” or something.
At about 3.41 Romney issues a claim about Bush 43′s position on abortion: Romney repeats GWB abortion claim he walked back in ’07.
At about 3.46 Baier broaches immigration. Here is the article he references: Romney in 2006 Backed Immigration Stance He Now Deems ‘Amnesty’.
At about 6.56 Baier asks if Romney still supports the idea of a mandate. Romney responds by scolding Baire: “Brett, I don’t know how many hundreds of times I’ve said this too—this is an unusual interview—Romney then breaks into a laugh both terrified and mirthless as he visibly squirms in his seat and crosses his legs into a defensive posture.
At about 7.15 Romney issues casuistry to support the claim that the mandate to purchase insurance was right for Massachusetts yet not for the nation. There are other points of view on this issue: Romneycare architect: Romney is ‘just lying’.
Romney-Baier interview part 2
Commentary:
This excerpt begins on healthcare. Romney claims that he is the best position to argue the issue. Others disagree: Limbaugh: Obama wants to run against Romney so Obamacare will be off the table.
At 4.35 Romney claims to be reading Decision Points by former President Bush. In a Politico.com Burns and Haberman blog burst titled So Nice, Read it Twice?, Maggie Haberman comments by a way of the quote of a “Democratic strategist”:
[...] The strategist seized on it as a way to reverse the flip-flop narrative and saying “after a rough few weeks of flip-flopping all over the place…his handlers must have told him today that he can’t change his positions on a daily basis. He must have taken their advice a little too literally, because today when asked what book he just read he had the same answer from seven months ago. If Mitt Romney hasn’t read a book lately, he should just come out and say it. Romney demonstrated once again that he’s incapable of being truthful about issues large and small” [...]
Romney announced that he had finished Decision Points 7 months ago:
[...] Back in May, in an NBC News interview, Romney said, “Last book I read was a novel called The Rule Of Nines, which was just fun…a more serious book, I finished President Bush’s book, ‘Decisions,’ and enjoyed that very much” [...]
Another issue about Romney’s choices in reading material:
Asked what book he’s read most recently, Romney said, “I’m reading sort of a fun one right now, so I’ll skip that,” adding, “I just read ‘Decision Points’ by President Bush,” writes Tommy Christopher for www.mediaite.com in a column titled Mitt Romney Refuses To Tell Bret Baier What ‘Fun Book’ He’s Reading
Christopher continues:
This begs the obvious question of what could be more embarrassing that reading a George W. Bush tome. Is he reading the scratch ‘n sniff edition of Snooki‘s A Shore Thing?
Romney has taken some ribbing in the past over his reading choices. Some websites needled him earlier this year over his admission that he’s a big Twilight fan, almost exactly four years after he took grief for telling Fox News that his favorite novel was Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard‘s Battlefield Earth. (Romney was careful to add that he was “not in favor of his religion by any means.”)
The “what do you read” question has tripped up many a candidate, but it’s not as if Romney said he was getting his news from Hubbard or Team Edward. While we may kid candidates about stuff like this, Romney’s affinity for crap shouldn’t matter at all to voters, or anyone else. In fact, as a guy who loves to chair dance to the Lil Mama remix of Avril Lavigne‘s Girlfriend in the car, and doesn’t care who knows it, I find Romney’s willingness to admit the embarrassing somewhat endearing [...]
yours &c.
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