People Are Disappointed with Obama's Policies: Part XXIV: Romney Secret 47% Video
I have long thought somebody should go through and annotate the 2012 Mitt Romney: Full Transcript of the 47% Secret Video. So I will now do it.
Part XXIV: People Are Disappointed with Obama's Policies:
After having his only reaction to incipient Trumpism from the Fox News-addled be to call for the elimination of the civil service, Romney pivots to how he is going to reach the key middle of the electorate. It's worth unpacking the steps of Romney's argument here in logical sequence:
- Obama is "a failure.... a bad guy... did bad things... corrupt."
- But this key segment of the electorate--"the 5 to 6 or 7 percent that we have to bring onto our side, they all voted for Barack Obama four years ago."
- So "they like him... they don't want to be told that they were wrong" to have supported them.
- But they are open to be asked "Are you disappointed in his policies that haven't worked?"
- And they are open to being told that "they did the right thing" in voting for him, "but he just wasn't up to the task... in over his head."
- We Republicans understand the truth about Obama, and that is what animates us.
- But these key people "voted for him... don't agree with us... the things that animate us are not the things that animate them."
The problem that Mitt Romney then faced was that the natural question for that "5 to 6 or 7 percent" to ask him was: What policies has Obama gotten wrong? And Romney's replies were:
- The shock hitting the economy at the end of George W. Bush's term was much bigger than people thought it was back in 2008: "He told you he'd keep unemployment below 8 percent..."
- A totally fake statistic that confirms my view that Romney had very much the wrong economic policy briefers: "Fifty percent of kids coming out of school can't get a job. Fifty percent."
- Another fake statistic: "Fifty percent of the kids in high school in our 50 largest cities won't graduate from high school." Blame this one on Alina and Colin Powelll. It doesn't count those who graduate in five years rather than four. It doesn't count G.E.D.'s (which are, IMHO, at least 2/3 of the way from "high school dropout" to "high school graduate").
And what else was Romney going to say? That Obama had not gotten us into enough wars in the Middle East? That he had successfully implemented RomneyCare in the Blue States, and it seemed to be working?
I think the disconnect between Romney-think and Romney campaign-think inside the Romney-bubble--Obama "a failure.... a bad guy... did bad things... corrupt"--and the message Romney was trying to sell to the middle of the electorate--"you did the right thing" in voting for him, "but he just wasn't up to the task... in over his head"--accounted for a lot of the campaign and message dysfunction of fall 2012 on the Republican side.
Romney: We speak with voters across the country about their perceptions. Those people I told you, the 5 to 6 or 7 percent that we have to bring onto our side, they all voted for Barack Obama four years ago. So, and by the way, when you say to them, "Do you think Barack Obama is a failure?" they overwhelmingly say no. They like him.
But when you say, "Are you disappointed in his policies that haven't worked?" they say yes. And because they voted for him, they don't want to be told that they were wrong, that he's a bad guy, that he did bad things, that he's corrupt. Those people that we that have to get, they want to think they did the right thing but he just wasn't up to the task. They love the phrase, "He's in over his head."
But we, you see, you and I, we spend our day with Republicans. We spend our days with people who agree with us, and these people are people who voted for him and don't agree with us. And so the things that animate us are not the things that animate them.
And the best success I have speaking with those people is, you know, the president's been a disappointment. He told you he'd keep unemployment below 8 percent, hasn't been below 8 percent since. Fifty percent of kids coming out of school can't get a job. Fifty percent. Fifty percent of the kids in high school in our 50 largest cities won't graduate from high school. What are they gonna do? They usually pass on saying... and I could say to that audience that they nod their heads and say, "Yeah, I think you're right"...
