Mark Halperin this morning on Mitt Romney's response to embassy attacks in Egypt and Libya:
Unless the Romney campaign has gamed this crisis out in some manner completely invisible to the Gang of 500, his doubling down on criticism of the President for the statement coming out of Cairo is likely to be seen as one of the most craven and ill-advised tactical moves in this entire campaign."Gang of 500" is, of course, Halperin's term for the elite movers and shakers who are deemed to be in charge of our politics. Halperin began using this term when he was in charge of The Note at the ABC News Web site.
More from Ben Smith at BuzzFeed:
Mitt Romney's sharply-worded attack on President Obama over a pair of deadly riots in Muslim countries last night has backfired badly among foreign policy hands of both parties, who cast it as hasty and off-key, released before the facts were clear at what has become a moment of tragedy....I guess now we see what makes the Beltway establishment draw the line -- a fear that the whole world could blow up.
"They were just trying to score a cheap news cycle hit based on the embassy statement and now it's just completely blown up," said a very senior Republican foreign policy hand, who called the statement an "utter disaster" and a "Lehman moment" -- a parallel to the moment when John McCain, amid the 2008 financial crisis, failed to come across as a steady leader....
[One] Republican, a former Bush State Department official, told BuzzFeed, "It wasn't presidential of Romney to go political immediately -- a tragedy of this magnitude should be something the nation collectively grieves before politics enters the conversation." ...
But the Republican Party has been crazy for a long time. This same gang of elitists could have chided the party for, say, shutting down the government in the 1990s, or impeaching the president a couple of years later, or, more recently, threatening to allow the United States to go into default and thus causing a reduction in our credit rating. The elitists could have made their feelings known when the party began filibustering everything in sight, or getting its talking points from the likes of Glenn Back and Orly Taitz and David Barton. The elites could now be criticizing GOP officeholders and media voices for inflexibility on a jobs bill, or on taxing the rich.
But the elites have long figured that none of that really threatens them. The collapse of the U.S. economy, the destruction of the middle class, the breakdown of American politics -- the elite figure their houses and portfolios will survive all that. They're all right, Jack.
But this seems dangerous to them. So they're saying, if only in anonymous whispers to journalists, that it's a bit much.
They should try bestirring themselves more often.
7 comments:
Jyzoos, if you've lost Drudge butt-boy Mark Halperin, who've you got left, except the apologists at FOX?
Looks like Mitt spit the bit!
And these people don't really care about what happens domestically.
But when you start to mess around with their foreign markets, and start to limit the number of countries they can run off to when sh*t implodes here, that sure gets their attention!
It's not an "ill-advised tactical move" among the wider voting public. The majority of voters who see Romney's remarks won't know the context, won't know there are lies and distortions involved. Romney finally got something approaching evidence for his "apologizing for America" slam, and he jumped on the chance to use it.
I heard Romney speaking this morning, and I just could not believe the nerve of the man to talk about US foreign policy as he, not Obama, is president. Looks like he's stepped in it one too many times.
But the elites have long figured that none of that really threatens them. The collapse of the U.S. economy, the destruction of the middle class, the breakdown of American politics -- the elite figure their houses and portfolios will survive all that. They're all right, Jack.
Steve, have you seen Revolt of the Rich? I'm kinda shocked to see it in the American Conservative.
Someone, somewhere said that Romney is a dick. Booman, I think.
Someone pointed out the man actually has no talent for politics. Perhaps also Booman.
And the idea of seeing him in charge of our foreign policy is very, very scary.
He could actually have profited from mild criticism of Obama and sterner criticism of the embassy's initial statement for "apologizing" for free speech and appearing to bow, if only slightly, to vicious mob anger and the religious bigotry of the Muslims in the streets of Cairo and Benghazi.
Naturally, he has bungled his opportunity and made a fool of himself.
All to the good, of course.
That's an amazing article. The Periodical that Pat Buchanan Built published that?
Pretty stunning.
Put on your tin-foil hats, folks, as the smirk suggests, as it did with Dubya, that he had a finger in this particular pie.
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