I'll defend Mitt Romney, too

Everyone's overreacting to Mitt Romney's interview with Fox's Brett Baier, in which Romney got mildly testy a couple of times. People are making a big deal out of it because Romney hardly ever does interviews, so when he does, everybody likes to get elbow-deep in the entrails.

Well, with Baier, when Romney wasn't as polished or commanding as he's been through most of the debates, the story-starved media pounced, thinking they'd found a third Romney weakness (the first two being: (1) the lack of conservative affection for him; and (2) his failure to connect with averages Janes and Joes).

Romney really only let his guard slip in response to two questions. In the set-up to the first one, Baier said, "...your critics charge that you make decisions based on political expediency and not core conviction; you have been on both sides of some issues..." He then asked Romney to comment.

I'd like everyone to imagine the tables being turned. Imagine, that is, that Romney had said to Brett Baier, "...your critics charge that you're more interested in your own professional advancement than in being a good journalist; you have a history of self-promotion at the expense of solid, shoe-leather journalism..." 

If I were Brett Baier and I'd heard that from Mitt, I'd have said, "Time to step outside, buddy...you're going to get the Mormon undergarment wedgie of a lifetime." 

I mean, seriously, what is Mitt supposed to do when a journalist sits there and asks him to respond to the charge that he's a flip-flopper and a political weather vane? It would take super-human strength not to show at least a little pique when someone hits you with a question like that. And if Mitt hadn't shown any pique at all, everyone would have said, "Oh great, there's the robotic Mitt again--just like the bloodless Mike Dukakis, who couldn't even show emotion when asked about his wife being raped."* Anyway, it's a lousy question. What's Romney going to say, other than, "Am not"?

Here was the second question to which Mitt reacted poorly: "Do you still support the idea of a mandate? Do you believe that that was the right thing for Massachusetts? Do you think a mandate, mandating people to buy insurance is the right tool?"

This is a bit like asking Robert DeNiro, "So, what's it like working with Martin Scorsese?" I mean, it's been asked and answered a million times. Brett Baier shouldn't have wasted everyone's time by asking the same questions AGAIN...and Romney responded accordingly.

*Romney might have appeared cool but non-robotic if he'd done this: "Well, Brett, is there's a specific issue you'd like to ask me about--an issue on which you think I've taken conflicting positions--I'd be happy to talk about that. But without that level of specificity, I'd have to say that the charge is utter nonsense."

Comments

[Ugg boots online]

Pam, I disagree on one point -- I never liked it when Bush pressured Pakistan to hold elections. Musharraf was doing a decent job helping us and fighting terrorists. Ever since he stepped down, things have gotten progressively worse in Pakistan.

We should have left well enough alone.