We Are Professionals: Part XXII: 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 XXII: We Are Professionals:
It is certainly true that I am not in Romney's core donor demographic.
But if I were, I think this would have led me to put away my checkbook. Here we see how Romney tried to convince his audience of potential donors that he had a professional operation. And what did he do?
Did he talk about the experienced party staff? Did he talk about senior campaign staff who had been mid-level in 2004 and 2008 and been very well-regarded, and mid-level staff who had been well-regarded juniors in 2004 and 2008? Did he talk about people who had successfully run House, Senate, and Governor campaigns in swing states here in the United States and how he had worked to get them on his team?
No. This is what he said:
I have a very good team of extraordinarily experienced, highly successful consultants...
Not party staff. Not professionals. Consultants--who bounce from campaign to media gig to free appearances as "strategists" and then back to campaigns. People whose principal aim is to preserve and enhance their media-centered social network rather than believers in your cause focused on getting you into office and your policies implemented.
And then he said:
A couple of people in particular... Karl Rove equivalents... [who do] do races all over the world. In Armenia. In Africa. In Israel. I mean, they work for Bibi Netanyahu in his races...
"Work for Bibi Netanyahu." Right.
Romney: Yeah, well. So it's—I can tell you I have a very good team of extraordinarily experienced, highly successful consultants. A couple of people in particular who've done races around the world. I didn't realize these guys in the US, the Karl Rove equivalents, they do races all over the world. In Armenia. In Africa. In Israel. I mean, they work for Bibi Netanyahu in his races.
So they do his races and see which ads work and which processes work best and, uh, we have ideas about what we do over the course of the campaign. I'd tell them to you, but I'd have to, you know, shoot ya. [Audience laughs.] Hopefully it will be a successful place...