Gaffe-Prone Campaign Does It Again (Twice)

(The picture above is from the photostream of the prolific DonkeyHotey.)

Old Wall Street Willie (aka Willard Mitt Romney) sometimes acts like he doesn't have a clue as to what's important to the average voter (or even the base GOP voter). It's not that he doesn't try to make himself look like an ordinary American -- but somehow, when he tries it just seems to emphasize the fact that he has spent his whole life as a rich man with special privileges.

For example, he tried to tell a Florida crowd that he understood what they felt being unemployed because he was also unemployed. It didn't register on him that he was still making over $21 million a year while not working, while they were worrying about how they would pay their bills and put food on the table for their families. His situation and that of most unemployed people are certainly far from comparable.

Then he comes up with the statement that he "likes to fire people". he was trying to make a point about insurance companies and choice, but it was an extremely stupid statement to make in a country where 13 to 20 million people are either unemployed or underemployed (and with little prospect to improve their situation anytime soon). The statement also seemed to highlight his actions at Bain Capital (when he destroyed many jobs) and made him look like a hard-hearted person.

Those are just a couple of examples of Romney campaign gaffes, and they should have been enough to convince him (and his campaign aides) that talking without thinking through what was being said was a problem that they needed to address. But evidently it wasn't. Just this last week the campaign did it again -- twice.

First it was Romney himself, as he told a crowd that it was George Bush (not Barack Obama) who prevented a depression with his actions in 2008. This fails on a couple of levels. First, a large majority of Americans still justifiably blame Bush for creating the recession. Second, the only thing Bush did was spend $700 billion to bail out Wall Street banks. Romney may think that bailout was great, but that's not a statement that will help him with the teabaggers in the GOP base (who were passionately opposed to the bailout).

They are still mad at Bush for bailing out Wall Street while millions of jobs were being lost (and ordinary Americans got nothing). With that statement, he also ties himself even closer the failed economic policies of George Bush and Wall Street. That's a move guaranteed to drive away Independents, who are looking for solutions -- not a return to the policies of the past.

Then Romney's advisor, Eric Fehrnstrom, goes on CNN and assures Americans that Romney is indeed a flip-flopper. When asked if Romney had moved too far to the right to appeal to most voters in the coming general election, Fehrnstrom said, "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You kind of shake it up and restart all over again."

It's my understanding that one of the major reasons the Republican base has not climbed on the Romney bandwagon is because they consider him a flip-flopper (who is just acting like a conservative to get the nomination, and will dump those conservative beliefs once he gets it). Fehrnstrom just told them their worst fears were true -- not smart with Romney only having half the delegates he needs to be nominated. The statement can also be taken by Independents to mean Romney is a candidate without any real views, who will say whatever he thinks will get him votes.

It was bad enough when it was just Romney saying stupid things. He certainly didn't need his campaign advisors to join him in that.