The Unspoken, Spoken
The Unspoken, Spoken
Perhaps it's unfair to let
Steve Benen frame the quote; still:
It was such a simple question: is there a concern Romney is being pushed so far to the right that he'll struggle with mainstream voters in the fall? The smart response would have been, "Romney is a mainstream conservative, and there's nothing extreme about his vision for America."
Instead Fehrnstrom said, "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all of over again."
And, of course, the punditry is amok with it; Santorum and Gingrich are actually carrying Etch-a-Sketch toys onstage with them; we're all supposed to be horribly shocked.
But ...
what is supposed to shock us so horribly?
Why are we supposed to be so horribly shocked?
First, the obvious: Nobody is
really shocked. Not actually,
genuinely shocked. To be specific, we all know this is how primary politics work. We also all know that the danger is running so hard for the base that one hurts his chances in the general.
Second, well, the thing is that
nobody is supposed to actually come out and say it. As long as everyone just
says nothing—a nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat, after all—the charade goes on.
As soon as somebody comes out and says it, though, what is anybody else supposed to say?
So the talking heads are saying everything they can think of, in real time, as it comes to mind.
Getting lost in that noise and fury may well be the unfortunate fate of those two points. Mitt Romney is in trouble according to both. Fehrnstrom's astoundingly ironic metaphor is the kind of thing that sticks in people's minds
because they already think of Mitt Romney as sort of mechanical; his metaphysical contours as a political candidate are a bit blocky. Indeed, he apparently does have some sort of connection to the
actual Etch-a-Sketch toys, though it might be a more recent Bain thing. But not only did Romney's communications director come out and say it, Romney is also pushing the boundaries of running so far to the conservative as to expose himself to all sorts of damage in the general.
Underpinning the whole Sketchy Mitt bit is the idea that, well, he's kind of sketchy.
Maddow tore into Romney's almost unbelievable penchant for phantom facts on her show tonight, quite obviously fueled by
TRMS producer Benen's weekly blog series, "
Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity".
As I listened through Rachel's litany, I found myself sympathetic not just to the political line. MSNBC is going to bang this drum all the way to November, but it's hardly a Maddow/Benen/O'Donnell conspiracy. Even Democratic supporters who eyed Romney's political fluency with chilly hints of alarm find themselves astounded at how badly the former Massachusetts governor has handled himself through this primary campaign. But in addition to picking up the obvious theme that it's hard to believe the magnitude of Romney's rhetorical wreckage. "He's bending the curve," Maddow suggests. And he seems to spin yarns about the most trivial stuff. I know that habit. I've seen that habit. I've lamented that behavior in a friend before; it's one thing to acknowledge that people lie, but she lied about absolutely inconsequential stuff. It is incredibly frustrating, as if one is trying to pick a fight by seeing just what manner of excrement will start the avalanche. And except for the fact that it is happening, one would have a hard time believing such a caricature in speculation or prediction.
The fact of "Mitt's mendacity" is nothing new in and of itself; politicians have been greasing the skids with bullhunky from the dawn of politics. In the context of American electoral politics, though, the
magnitude of Romney's manure factor, and the sheer senselessness of his sleights, are extraordinary.
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Notes:
Benen, Steve. "A line that will be tough to live down". The Maddow Blog. March 21, 2012. MaddowBlog.MSNBC.MSN.com. March 21, 2012. http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/21/10796763-a-line-that-will-be-tough-to-live-down
—————. "Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. X". The Maddow Blog. March 16, 2012. MSNBC.MSN.com. March 21, 2012. http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/16/10720707-chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-x
Maddow, Rachel. The Rachel Maddow Show. MSNBC, New York. March 21, 2012. MSNBC.MSN.com. March 21, 2012. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46816690
