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Posted on 07/16/2010 12:57:38 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
‘Anonymous Numbskulls’ – Romney Calls for Cease-Fire with Palin
July 16, 2010 1:04 PM
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: How do you end a political food fight in 140 characters or less?
A series of delectable, anonymous quotes were forming an early front in the battle for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination – until former Gov. Mitt Romney took to Twitter today to put a stop to it.
The fun began when a pair of Romney intimates sounded off – without their names attached --about former Gov. Sarah Palin:
“She's not a serious human being,” one Romney adviser told Time’s Mark Halperin. Said a “Romney intimate”: “If she's standing up there in a debate and the answers are more than 15 seconds long, she's in trouble.”
Aides to Palin followed suit – anonymously, of course.
“It shocks me that anyone would try to do that,” a Palin aide told Politico’s Andy Barr. “Those who try to claim the mantle of Reagan would be good to follow one of his most sacred tenets. … For Washington consultants to sit around and personally disparage the Governor anonymously to reporters is unfortunate and counterproductive and frankly immature.”
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...
“You are all missing the point. Myth is trying to have his cake, (intimates attack palin) while he says for them to stop.”
You’re right, it’s a classic case of throwing rocks and hiding hands. I think even the GOP establishment knows he’s not up to the job, hence all the Jeb Bush talk that’s been popping up lately.
He blinked.
I was going to make a comment about holy underwear, but I’d probably get banned.
:p
My agenda? Okay -it’s a lie & Romney’s never had these problems before.
I wouldn’t trust it by any stretch of the imagination...
I didn’t say Klein was lying. I presume that he is faithfully reporting the twitter feed that Romney made, and that he is also faithfully repeating what he read about the identities of the commenters Romney is responding to.
What I am saying is that we have no evidence that the two commentors in question really are intimates of Romney, or advisors to Romney. We don’t know who they are, Klein doesn’t suggest he knows who they are, and the original reports weren’t clear about how the reporters identified the people as current advisors to Romney.
For all we know, someone anonymously wrote to a blog somewhere “I’m a close advisor to Romney, and I beleive “X” about Palin”. And the media reported that as “a close advisor to Romney said “X” about Palin”.
I’ve seen so many anonymous sources blamed on candidates that I generally discount it until we have actual names. Sometimes it turns out it’s a guy who worked with the candidate years earlier, or a person who donated money but was never actually associated with a campaign.
What does seem clear is that Romney doesn’t know who these so-called “intimates” are. IF someone who you were intimate with said something you disagreed with, you wouldn’t respond with a twitter calling them names. You’d call them out publicly, and remove them from your team.
Not the first. Not the second. Not the third.
The Palmetto Scoop reported:
"The sources said nearly 80 percent of Romney’s former staff was absorbed by McCain and these individuals were responsible for what amounts to a premeditated, last-minute sabotage of Palin."
that Palin would be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2012 or 2016, which made her a threat to another presidential quest by Romney.
"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"
"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"
"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"
"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"
"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"
Poor sport spoiler Romney doing what he does best:
Novak: "Fred Thompson drop-out rumors traced to Romney campaign"
Still, few express much regard for Palin's ultimate chances. An adviser to Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and, by traditional standards, the putative 2012 front runner, says of Palin, "She's not a serious human being." Another Romney intimate warns, "If she's standing up there in a debate and the answers are more than 15 seconds long, she's in trouble."
p.s. since when does Mittster twitter? Attempting to copy Governor Palin again I see (with laughable results).
And it’s why (among other things) we’re going to have problems leading up to 2012: division & strife from within.
Halperin has also not provided the name of this so-called “advisor”. How does Halperin know this person is an advisor? What evidence does Halperin give which lets us know how he determined that the person was an advisor?
Until we know the names of these so-called “advisors”, we have know idea what the truth is.
You can check for yourself when Mitt Romney set up a twitter account. Then you can be informed as to whether he did so before or after Sarah, and if it looks like it is some imitation (I don’t generally twitter, or log into my twitter account, and Sarah is just about the only twitter feed I’m signed up for, so I don’t have any idea when different politicians started twittering).
I do believe that Klein is simply repeating what Halperin wrote, so Klein is not an independent verification of anything. And it wouldn’t be the first time Halperin did his job of turning republicans against each other to help his liberal friends.
Divorcing your feelings about the particular candidate, can’t you see that it’s odd that a candidate would trash via twitter people who are really his advisors or “intimates”?
You continue your chronic apologies for Romney’s bad
behavior.
His false badges.
His fake endorsements.
His imposing RomneyCARE.
His imposing gay marriage by his proxy and Order.
His coverup of the BIG-DIG.
His lying about MLK, NRA, etc.
So why are you doing this?
Do you really believe that EVERYONE ELSE IS LYING?
The reporter obviously double sourced this, just like
FReepers who have outed your beloved Mitt Romney(CARE).
If the jerk was serious it would be not tweeted but they would be fired..and put the fear of God in the rest of his staff.....the man isn’t serious...except about his hair..
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Tough to take a person seriously when they are defending liberal journalists.
I believe Romney’s denial like I believe Tax Cheat Timmy’s promises to Kudlow.
If you want an answer as to why the GOP is not drubbing The One over the Obamacare insanity, one need look no further than Mr. Perfect-hair-teeth-RINO from New England, The Mittmeister.
Prediction: If Romney buys the GOP nomination the Elite Establishment GOP will be left standing all alone to face the Dems in November 2012.
The Bourgeoisie is tired of being played for suckers by the Liberal Establishment.
Mitt Romney = Scott Brown = the Maine Twins = the Right stays home again.
Dear GOP... nominate someone else or become the 21st Century embodiment of the Whig Party. The warning isn’t populist foolishness - the Tea Party folks that you disdainfully pooh-pooh are not going away.
No Romney...please for pity’s sake no more Yankee-Elite-Establishment-Country-Clubbers.
Speaking of ‘unserious’, portraying fellow FReepers who see this report of alleged comments by Romney insiders as quite probable as “defending liberal journalists”, is completely lame. You have zero evidence that this is not true and it does fit exactly with Romney’s past actions and use of minions. Charles, where is your honesty and above it all Swiss neutrality?!
You think Klien is not a liberal journalist?
It doesn’t make sense that a current “intimate advisor” of Romney would say this to a reporter, and Romney would denounce that person in a Twitter statement.
Because Klien is no friend of Romney. He KNOWS who the person is who said this, supposedly. If he knew that Romney knew who it was, Klein woudl attack Romney for pretending he didn’t know who it was.
So until I see Klein suggest that Romney would have any idea who this so-called “intimate advisor” is, I’ll stick with the thought best expressed in that liberal TV series “The West Wing”, after they won re-election, when some low-level minion got his fame by somehow convincing a journalist to run a story about how the victory was all their doing.
Journalists love to report gossip, and they love to make it “important” by attributing it to “important people”. It’s not just Romney, but this happened a lot to Romney in 2008, with these “anonymous close confidants” being quoted, and on the rare occasion that one was identified, we’d learn that they were someone on the periphery of the campaign, or just donors who had no say in how the campaign operated.
Same thing happened with Thompson’s campaign, with Huckabee, and of course all through the general election we’d see leaks attributed to people associated with McCain/Palin.
People even here at FR who are now trying to put Palin back in her place have been trying to overplay the connection between her and some who call themselves part of her inner circle.
It’s just the way things are. It’s not like it’s a “big lie” or anything, so there’s no point in pretending it doesn’t happen, or suggesting that because Klein SAYS that an “intimate” of Romney said something, that it reflects Romney, his campaign, or is from a person who is actually part of the Romney team at this point.
Heck, it could be some employee at one of the branch offices of his political PAC who Romney has shook hands with once in passing.
When these types of rumors attack those we see as conservative, we all know what credibility to give to a reporter like Klein.
But when they help attack someone whose ox we want to gore, suddenly the journalists are respected and can’t be possibly deceiving or in any way trying to dissemble.
The simple fact is that a few liberal media members decided it was important to get the Palin and Romney camps to go at each other’s throats, because it helps the Democrats. Fortunately, Palin and Romney didn’t take the bait — unfortunately, a lot of Palin supporters did.
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