"Romney was faced with an important leadership test last night. He failed spectacularly." (updated)

[ProSense]

Romney fails critical leadership test

By Steve Benen

<...>

It seems as if Romney has finally gone too far. NBC News' First Read called out "one of the most over-the-top and (it turns out) incorrect attacks of the general-election campaign," which looks "worse and worse" as more information comes to light.

This was news-cycle campaigning by the Romney campaign gone awry. Why didn't the Romney campaign wait until it had all the facts? On his overseas trip in the summer, Romney was so careful not to criticize Obama while on foreign soil. But how much time do you give an administration to work through a diplomatic and international crisis before trying to score immediate political points? You'd expect the Sarah Palins of the world to quickly pounce on something like this, and she predictably did. But a presidential nominee running for the highest office in the land?

After the facts have come out, last night's Romney statement only feeds the narrative that his campaign is desperate.

ABC News' Jake Tapper had a related report, noting the challenges facing the Obama administration in light of developments in Libya and Egypt, but also highlighting Romney's mistake.

GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will likely face questions of his own today, not only about his foreign policy views (Romney had at least five different positions on Libya as of last October) but about his statesmanship.

Before news spread that four Americans had been killed in Benghazi, Romney yesterday issued a statement saying in part: "It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."

This is an attack that does not stand up to simple chronology.

The Republican candidate was so eager to attack the president that he ended up lying while trying to exploit the deaths of four Americans abroad.

Romney was faced with an important leadership test last night. He failed spectacularly.

Update: Romney is speaking on the violence on camera now.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/09/12/13828189-romney-fails-critical-leadership-test

Updated status of Romney appearance.

[fleur-de-lisa]

1. I hope this finally dooms that assholes campaign.

[Roy Rolling]

13. Not qualified

Romney simply doesn't have the qualifications to be a commander-in-chief. He and his cohorts cannot be trusted with the mantle of leadership.

[lebkuchen]

35. I hope it takes the rethug congress down with it.

[ejbr]

47. + 1 n/t

[caseymoz]

52. If not . . .

. . . having his campaign limp along until November, will. It's going to be seven weeks of blame and bitterness.

What makes it particularly funny and interesting is that billionaires put up hundreds of millions to win this election, and Romney just laid an egg on their plans, and will continue to make it worse until November. Those sorts of guys want a return on their investment. If they buy an election, they expect to be given an election. I mean, to them, this is an investment gone extremely bust.

Therefore, it's hard to say who's going even have anything to do with Romney after his career comes to a merciful end in November. Lobbyist is probably not going to be a career choice.

[lebkuchen]

60. great points

I sure hope a democratic congress is the result. Two months to go...

[DURHAM D]

2. I can't really listen to what he is saying because

I am overwhelmed by his smug attitude and the smirk on his face.


Why is he amused?

[RC]

6. He has that smirk because it all Obama's fault.

Mitt thinks he has gained some points here. Clueless doesn't begin to cover it.

[AllyCat]

8. He's amused because he is a sociopath

A dumb one too.

[karynnj]

23. He looks at the election as a game and he sees this as a win for him

He has no real compassion for the people who died and their families. It is the same robot like Romney who sees everything only in terms of the race. Not to mention, he does not want to have the full truth before speaking.

Contrast that to the somber looks and demeanor of both Obama and Clinton.

Your observation, which many will see or at least get subliminally, and the he fact that almost all Republican foreign policy people have not been happy with this, will lose him the moderate Republicans in the voting population.

As a Jew, I am stunned and horrified that the film was made by an Israeli American and funded by right wing Jews. Jewish history includes so many pogroms that were ignited by Passion plays or books like the Council of Elders, which both could be seen as their century's equivalent of this speech. This is despicable.

[Care Acutely]

25. Dead people are amusing

When he thinks they have scored him poll points.

[WeNeedBetterGovernmt]

32. We already had President George W SMIRKY and we don't need another!

Romney just wants to play President. That doesn't make him a good candidate!

[calimary]

43. Wrongney.

[tex-wyo-dem]

50. I imagine that's the same smirk he would give when....

he witnessed the looks on people's faces that were getting layed off from companies that Bain was about to part-out and sell for a profit.

A #1 asshole.

[pinboy3niner]

3. He talks about leadership? He can't even organize a press appearance

First it's on, then it's off, then it's on again. Great display of leadership and decisiveness!

[ProSense]

4. Beyond EPIC FAIL! n/t

[mnmoderatedem]

5. he's once again trying to appeal to tea partiers

and making a statement in a typically uninformed tea partierish manner

[pampango]

40. I keep thinking that he is just playing at being a teabagger to motivate the base, but then he acts

like he really is one at the most inappropriate moment.

Most of us believe that he represents the corporate wing of the GOP and is just playing at being a teabagger because he thinks that will help him get elected. And the corporate wing is winking at him figuring they can ignore the base once Mitt is elected.

However this crisis was an opportunity for him to show undecided voters that he is a real statesman and can handle foreign crisis that pop up in any presidents term. He failed miserable by playing to the teabaggers one more time.

[Aldo Leopold]

7. Seems like this asshat's campaign strategy has become

reduced to nothing more than just hoping/waiting for any perceived "slip" by Obama and pouncing on it. Total fuck up.

[beac]

10. Welcome to DU, Aldo!

And yes, Rmoney's campaign strategy seems to be based in the debating tactics of a third grade playground.

[classof56]

16. Well put, Aldo. And welcome to DU!

n/t

[rock]

33. You summed it up perfectly Aldo

Welcome, to DU. What took you so long. We've been waiting for you.

[RagAss]

34. Welcome to DU.

[justiceischeap]

9. It won't matter if his "attack does not stand up to simple chronology"

He and fox and other repubs will claim the chronology is true and that will be the end of that. They'll always believe that President Obama "sympathized" with those that waged the attacks and that will be that. It may matter to some independents but it won't matter to the repub party.

[Generic Brad]

53. Tomorrow we will hear him express empathy retroactively

That strategy has worked well for him in the past on a multitude of other issues.

[Vox Moi]

11. Romney to people surrounded by an angry mob: be indignant!

Never surrender your values to common sense!
Dosen't this sound a bit like 'Bring 'em on'?
This response is perfectly in line with the truculent, abrasive approach to foreign policy that Mitt has displayed with respect to Russia and Israel's desire to attack Iran.
Four Americans dead and Mitt is trying to spin it into a political gain.

[Ineeda]

12. Opportunist of the worst kind:

grave dancing once removed. He really doesn't care a whit about the victims or the complicated political climate, but boy-oh-boy (gleefully rubbing hands together) he can't wait to condemn the president, and only to advance his campaign. He will never, ever be a leader.

[Vietnameravet]

14. Question

Is there anything these bastards will not say? any level they will not stoop too?

[JHB]

24. Answer: No

Witness the entire career of Newt Gingrich.

[raging_moderate]

17. !!News Flash!! Willard jumps the shark while simultaneously nuking the 'fridge !

I just knew all those years practicing verbal gymnastics and ethical contortionism would pay off in the end.....

[Whisp]

18. What a disgrace he is.

Honestly, I think the only thing he was ever taught was how to count money and nothing else. Nothing.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

19. If he put on a red rubber nose and a pair of big floppy shoes...

he couldn't have looked any less presidential.

[StrictlyRockers]

20. Another pathetic display of unstatesmanlike behavior.

This guy is not qualified to be Mayor of Provo, let alone President!

[TheCowsCameHome]

21. Nice job, Willard. You just sealed your fate.

Thank you, from your friends on the democratic side.

[kentuck]

22. Desperate people make desperate mistakes.

Romney is desperate.

[Pryderi]

26. Any connection between Sheldon Adelson and the anti-Islamic youtube film maker? n/t

[lexw]

27. I have a hard time believing any US presidential candidate would have advisors this stupid.

I believe Romney (as a one time CEO) is used to having people listen with awe to his ideas (aka brown-nosing), and as such has a huge ego—which keeps him from listening to anyone else. So all these dumb-a$$ mistakes are his own idea.

[TheCowsCameHome]

28. He is surrounded by idiots.

He likes it that way because they feed him what he wants to hear.

[Cha]

44. With Romney, The Idiot, in the middle. nt

[usaf-vet]

29. Seriously what else would you expect from a rich asshole.....

..... that has ALWAYS been able to manipulate his environment by writing a check, hiring PR firms, hiring attorneys, lying, cheating and stealing to get whatever he wants. He is a bully who doesn't like to lose. A bully with a big enough check book to win. He is a sociopath with no compassion.

Hopefully he won't be able to buy our presidency.

[jtuck004]

31. that. n/t

[FSogol]

30. K & R. n/t

[judesedit]

37. My pet rock has more empathy, sensitivity, emotion, sincerity, feelings, humanity & common sense

than war-monger Rmoney. However you want to say it, he's a cold, cold-hearted shell of a man.

[Auntie Bush]

38. Can't wait for the next couple polls.

Down to the big pile of do-doo on the floor that he'll try and walk away from...but too much is stuck to his shoes. I wonder who'll get stuck with cleaning up the mess he created?

[Turbineguy]

39. Well, now he can say:

"I was going to fire that Ambassador anyway!"

[Ikonoklast]

41. NOT QUALIFIED...dangerously so.

If this asshole ever got near the White House, the next war we would get into would be the last one.

[ProSense]

42. How the hell did he get this far?

The signs were there. This asshole was never qualified to be President.

[Ikonoklast]

46. Lazy voters impressed by $1000.00 Italian shoes and a haircut.

Citizens who are too stupid to realize they vote their own pockets to be picked clean by smrking millionaires who despise them.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

45. None of this matters, Mitt's campaign already said "fact checkers" are the enemy.

[fishwax]

48. idiotic and disgraceful and wholly dishonest

Not surprising coming from that campaign.

[ProSense]

61. With more to come. n/t

[CrispyQ]

49. This guy has always been able to say whatever he wants, whenever he wants

without ever being called out on it. He's in uncharted waters & sinking.

[WinkyDink]

51. That it took THIS episode to make some realize that Romney is TERRIBLE is depressing.

[Pauldg47]

54. Huff post...

...does not remark on this?! What goes on here?

[ProSense]

55. Krugman: Why The Vileness Matters

Why The Vileness Matters

I haven’t weighed in on Romney’s awesomely awful intervention on events in Egypt and Libya; with even Republicans joining in the chorus of shocked disapproval, not much I can add.

<...>

There will probably be some voters moved directly against Romney by this spectacle, and none moved toward him. Yes, there are quite a few Americans who are willing to believe that the man who has been president for three and a half years — and who killed Bin Laden — actually sympathizes with terrorists. But everyone in those fever swamps is already an Obama-hater, and Romney has just made himself look small and hysterical to everyone else.

But the real impact probably comes via the press.

I’ve seen some comparisons between Mitt Romney’s position right now and that of George W. Bush after the Democratic convention in 2000, and by the numbers there is some resemblance. But what really happened in the final months of that election? The answer — not a popular one with journalists, but very obviously true to anyone who lived through it — was that the press took sides. Reporters liked Bush and didn’t like Gore, and as a result they treated Bush with kid gloves while gleefully passing on every smear against his opponent (“Gore says he invented the internet!” No, he never did).

That probably wasn’t going to happen this time in any case. But now Romney has really ensured that everyone in the news media, the GOP propaganda organs aside, is going to view him with distaste and alarm — as well they should.

- more -

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/why-the-vileness-matters/

[Inuca]

56. Halperin had the perfect word

CRAVEN

[TheKentuckian]

57. What a disgrace Weird WilLIARd is

[Javaman]

58. I get a feeling this is the thing that finally doomed mittens.

just a feeling.

[ProSense]

59. It should, but

Mitt's trucking along, now claiming that Obama will lie in the debates.