"Head Like a Hole" - Nine Inch Nails
Wow -- sorry to be slow in getting something posted, but I've been trying to absorb the Romney video and the media response to it. One gets the sense that Mitt's foolish and contemptuous remarks about the 47% who don't pay income taxes -- the bulk of whom are elderly and probably support Romney -- is really going to have an impact on this race. It's not like things were going terribly well for the Romney campaign, but reports about campaign bickering in the Politico are total inside baseball without a whole lot of resonance for the broader class of voters. But this -- this naked exposition of the cold, soulless douchebag that is Mitt Romney is going to dominate the airwaves for the next 48-72 hours and is not likely to "humanize" the Mittster in the eyes of the public. (It is amusing to see where those who don't pay income tax are concentrated -- and where the highest percentage of income tax payers reside.)
I was struck by how many people already have stories up about this. I started with the blogosphere -- Pierce kills it -- but was more interested to see what the play was going to be like in the mainstream. And it appears that the story is going to be huge tomorrow, absolutely huge. The Times has a pretty devastating take on it. The Post has four stories up already -- one tepid news story, a piece by Ezra Klein, a fact check by Glenn Kessler, and a description of a hastily called and panicky Romney press availability. (The fact that Romney got trotted out at 10:00 PM EDT to answer -- awkwardly -- a handful of questions gives you the sense of how badly the Romney camp thinks this thing is going to hurt.) I can't believe I am saying this, but I cannot wait to see "Morning Joe" tomorrow -- heads will be exploding.
One is struck by a couple of things: first, that Romney appears fluid and completely at ease while speaking to his fellow plutocrats, qualities not much in evidence when he is out on the stump. Two, the casual quality of his contempt -- this is a man who basically views half of the country as a bunch of free loaders and he presumes, completely erroneously, that this is the constituency for the Democratic Party. And three, that Romney's awkwardness on the stump appears to be largely the product of the difficulty associated with having to lie all of the time, to suppress this vein of contempt from shining through.
He confirms to me once again that he is a horrible human being and manifestly unfit for the highest office in the land. I have a feeling more than 47% of voters are going to agree with me.
Pile on my friends, pile on. And do not spare the schadenfreude.
Update: When you've lost David Brooks . . . . Of course Brooks, too, remains a dick, with his clueless remark that "federal disability payments and unemployment insurance" cultivate dependency. Another asshole.
