Political Animal
Blog
A good catch by Brother Benen today, who took a close look at a Univision appearance by Mitt Romney that Team Mitt has been boasting about, and saw less than had met the eye:
The campaign threatened to cancel the televised event unless Univision and organizers met Romney’s demands. Organizers backed down (the University of Miami forum was coordinated by a local Romney campaign official). The bused-in Republican activists proceeded to ignore Univision requests to hold their applause, turning the forum into more of a pro-Romney rally.
But in its efforts to display more Latino support for Romney than any poll has ever shown, Team Mitt may have gone overboard in ways that could bite it later on, forcing co-moderator Jorge Ramos to retape the candidate’s introduction, and then whipping its hand-picked crowd into so much of a frenzy that the moderators could barely be heard.
As Laura Colarusso explained in the cover feature for the May/June issue of the Washington Monthly, Jorge Ramos is a rock-star celebrity among Latinos with the kind of cache Anglo network anchors haven’t had since Walter Cronkite. Visibly disrespecting Ramos—or even intensely annoying him—may not be the smoothest move the Romney campaign has executed lately.
Facebook
Twitter
Ronald on September 24, 2012 4:16 PM:
"Visibly disrespecting Ramos—or even intensely annoying him—may not be the smoothest move the Romney campaign has executed lately."
This assumes Mr. Romney has made any 'smooth moves' lately :P
exlibra on September 24, 2012 4:22 PM:
It seems that, for Team MitWitt, 35 minutes (the length of the interview Romney agreed to) into the future constitutes "long term vision"
schtick on September 24, 2012 4:23 PM:
That bumpy road Willard is on seems to be a very long one and hopefully will continue to be so. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Just saying.....
c u n d gulag on September 24, 2012 4:28 PM:
Maybe when he loses, Mitt, and all of his Man-tan, can replace the late Ricardo Matalban and do Chrysler ads, for the cars with "Rich Corrrrrrrrrrinthian Leather!"
Ronald on September 24, 2012 4:29 PM:
One other thing stands out from all of that:
Both Romney and Obama had, basically, the same set of rules.
Obama and the Democrats followed them
Romney and the Republicans twisted and bent them to try and squeeze out every advantage for their man possible.
Mr. Romney has done that his entire life . Bent and twisted the rules (see: taxes) to his benefit.
Just something else to think about.
Rand Careaga on September 24, 2012 4:34 PM:
Ed: You want to make that "cachet" and not "cache," although it's intriguing to imagine what Walter Cronkite might have had cached...
Celui on September 24, 2012 4:35 PM:
I would truly like to hear this reported on any/all of the MSM networks tonight, and especially on PBS. I don't think I'll hear any of it on Faux Noise. Fourth estate: here's your chance at beginning redemption. Get on it.
ChicagoRob on September 24, 2012 4:41 PM:
@Ronald -- you got there first with my comment almost word for word. :-)
James E. Powell on September 24, 2012 6:03 PM:
Visibly disrespecting Ramos—or even intensely annoying him—may not be the smoothest move the Romney campaign has executed lately.
How many people who would care about it will know about it?
Also. Ever since Bush the Elder speed-slapped Dan Rather Republicans have been publicly disrespecting press/media people. Their base loves it and the disrespected press/media people respond with more favorable coverage. Fear of being cut out of the Kook Kids parties and all that.
Kathryn on September 24, 2012 7:10 PM:
Well IMHO, Univision should have held firm, let the campaign pull the interview, Romney, entitled jerk that he is, has been accommodated his whole life. Surely, I'm not the only person to have read about Mr Romney's terms in his business involvement with Bain, when he insisted on every protection imaginable before he agreed to take over Bain Capital. Unless and until, society stops letting the elite call all the shots, we will continue to have candidates like Lord and Lady Rommey who sincerely believe we peasants are lucky to have them runniing to screw us over in the White House.
Anonymous on September 24, 2012 7:16 PM:
This is a pretty huge story in my opinion, because it feeds directly into the "Mitt is a phony" narrative Romney has been busily constructing for himself. The whole Univision episode was just weird in the first place.
Suppose Obama was doing poorly with the Latino vote, and he decided to bus in supporters to cheer his every utterance on a Univision Q&A all while dying his face beet orange. FOX News wouldn't be talking about anything else for a month. And because of that, the MSM would give the story plenty of oxygen too.
shadow on September 24, 2012 10:07 PM:
With the number of Republican latinos in Miami, Romney has to bus in supporters?
Mitt buses in his applause noise on September 25, 2012 12:42 AM:
Mitt Romney is so out of touch, having lived the life of the venture capitalist, the well-placed bishop of Mormons, the son of a governor...
$10 million was awarded in federal money to bail out Mitt Romney and Bain Capital-- widely regarded as a vulture capital enterprise-- which offers the appearance of being so much more the moocher than the struggling family needing some food stamps and assistance to feed elementary school children who are poor and hungry....or the disabled veteran debilitated by years in a wheelchair, or the 87 year-old widow who stayed at home while her husband worked, and now subsists on a very limited income since he retired 25 years ago when wages were so much lower.... or a couple working in tandem to support a family and provide a college education for a young daughter or son....
none of whom had the breaks of a Mitt Romney who took assistance when he worked at companies or at the Olympics, yet ridicules those needing it truly.
And there's Mitt Romney and his wife pretending to have struggled in their younger years, saying they had to sell their stocks.
It is a joke. A fraud. A crying shame.
boatboy_srq on September 25, 2012 9:43 AM:
@exlibra:
Given that Romney himself can't seem to recall what he said five minutes ago, campaigning in the Now (as in "right now this very second") seems absolutely visionary.
---------------------------------------------------------
@Ronald and Kathryn: two sides of the same coin. Romney has wrangled for special treatment his entire life - because he's "special" donchano. The Univision stunt is par for the course. It would be interesting if Univision and Ramos allowed this behavior because they intend to use it later on: few things look worse on the campaign trail than an entitled pr##k, especially if it's highlighted on the nightly news for an extended period.
I'm wondering whether Multiple Position Mitt will spontaneously bow out of the campaign at some point because he isn't being given the guarantees of success and acclaim he will demand just for being pResident. Already Ann is complaining about how "hard" campaigning is (which almost guarantees Mitt thinks so too), so one can only imagine how awful the actual job would be (both the necessity to actually work in Romney's case, and the horrible mess he'd make in ours).
A Hermit on September 25, 2012 10:04 AM:
They should have called his bluff and done a 35 minute Clint Eastwood impression with Mitt's empty chair...
Beglibelubava on December 15, 2012 4:07 PM:
Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive read something like this just before. So nice to obtain somebody with some original thoughts on this subject. realy thank you for beginning this up. this webpage is some thing that is required on the web, an individual with a small originality. useful job for bringing some thing new to the web!
jordans for women