A funny thing happened during Willard's black March to the White House. Somewhere along the way it stopped doing what campaigns do out of tradition -- sketch out the broad outlines of its candidate -- and bizarrely put pen to paper to draw the most farcical caricature possible of its ardent supporters.
Led by the odd choice of putting a rambling old man on stage to hold court with an empty chair, Mitt Romney's staff has stumbled into simultaneously painting the boss and his adherents as something his earlier campaign most decried: weird.
That word first spoken in a still, small voice -- describing Mitt's religion, his cardboard stiffness, his inability to relate to people -- has crescendoed into a cacophonous roar of disapproval for nearly everything he touches.
“What Romney does not get,” says Jack Blum, a veteran Washington lawyer and offshore expert, “is that this stuff is weird.” - Vanity Fair, Aug 2012
"Bill Kristol: ‘Kinda weird’ Romney pays lower tax rate than middle-class people" - Raw Story, Aug. 20, 2012
"Romney: Old Rich Weird Dude" - WRKO Boston, Aug. 28, 2012
"Romney Aides Call Eastwood Speech ‘Strange,’ ‘Weird,’ ‘Theater Of The Absurd’" - Talking Points Memo, Aug. 31, 2012
And the ink bearing the stain of weirdness has spilled over onto the swath of the electorate proclaiming they'll vote Romney/Ryan in November. This must indeed be huge enough news to lure the D.C. commentariat from its beltway perch. Reporting from the field, Dana Milbank encountered one of Willard's minions for a mind-fuck of an exchange.
In the Sarasota crowd, I spoke with Billy Murphy, a retiree holding a poster board with the hand-lettered message: “NO REDISTRIBUTION TO FREELOADERS.” Murphy, an avowed foe of President Obama, will support Romney — but he does not know why. “He hasn’t really told the people yet what he’s gonna do,” Murphy said. “We need to know.” Noting Murphy’s sign, I suggested that he must, at least, agree with Romney’s criticism of the 47 percent of Americans who pay no federal income taxes and expect government handouts. “I don’t know,” Murphy said, suddenly sheepish. “I’m one of the 47 percent. I’m on Social Security.”The contagion, however, is not limited to the campaign's #47percent class: it has managed to permeate Romney's donor class as well. Speaking of the besieged wealthy donors bunkered defensively behind the opulent doors of Marc Leder's Boca Raton mansion, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell laid down this blistering appraisal of that encampment during his Sept. 19 show:
"Mitt Romney proved himself to be the stupidest person in a very stupid room. And it wasn`t easy to be the stupidest person in that room because the people we hear on tape questioning Romney were all, let`s say, very slow students of American politics.Awareness of the lunacy that spread across the campaign canvas like an intricate Victorian wallpaper has not been limited to the American political infrastructure. Indeed the strange Romney calamity has drawn note across the pond. No, no, the other pond. Over in Australia politicians have commented on Mitt's weird sideshow, starting back before he embarked on his #Romneyshambles misadventures.
They are all rich. That`s how they got in that room. That`s how they were there. That`s how they were able to attend a high dollar political fundraiser. They`re all people to whom much has been given. Many of them were surely people like Mitt Romney to whom much was given at birth by their rich parents. And they are all people who are bitterly and angrily resentful of any system that requires them to part with anything they`ve been given, which explains their hatred of taxation.
Like Mitt Romney, they lie to themselves and each other about the world they live in. One of the most vile and despicable lies told in that room that night was by the rich Republican buffoon who said this to Mitt Romney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)O`DONNELL: That`s the kind of campaign advice Romney was getting that night from the rich, imbecilic, lazy minded and hateful fat cats in that room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That Eric Holder was probably the most corrupt attorney general that we`ve had ever in American history. And I think it`s something that if spun in the right way and in simple terms can actually resonate with the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Along with using the laundry list of Romney gaffes as a national cautionary tale, the press Down Under points to the Republican's "desperation" as the result of the party's enslavement to radical "cranks and crazies."
So for Willard's opposition, his clueless declaration that all's swell in this managerial flop and "it doesn't need a turnaround," brings with it howls of glee from Democrats and unusual bipartisan agreement. One Democrat even offers Romney supporters a "Get Out of Asylum Free" card and lays blame at the artist's feet:
"This is, I've said all along, this is Romney's election to lose and by God he's losing," [Democratic pollster Pat] Caddell said on a recent Fox Comedy News show. "They are incompetent ... believe that you can sit and the election will automatically come to you? ... It's not the American people who are stupid, your candidate is stupid."
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