Romney Campaign Dares To Praise Romneycare

Romney Campaign Dares To Praise Romneycare

Mitt Romney’s campaign upset conservatives today when spokesperson Andrea Saul committed the unusual “gaffe” of saying that Romney’s chief accomplishment as governor of Massachusetts actually helped people.

Saul was on Fox News responding to yesterday’s Priorities USA Action ad, which told the story of a man whose wife died of cancer after he was laid off from a Bain-owned steel plant and lost his health insurance. Saul disputed the ad’s accuracy — calling it “despicible” — and then pointed out that things might have gone better for the woman if she had lived in the Bay State:

“To that point, you know, if people had been in Massachusetts under Governor Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care,” Saul said. “There are a lot of people losing their jobs and losing their health care in President Obama’s economy.”

The rare admission that Romney was not always in favor of the GOP’s “Let him die!” plan created an immediate firestorm among conservatives. For example, influential right wing blogger Erick Erickson quickly responded via Twitter:

 

He added on his blog, “About the only thing more stupid in terms of building bridges with the right would be to say something nice about fetal stem cell research.”

The dust-up underscores what a delicate balance Romney must strike as the Republican Party’s standard bearer in 2012. To avoid a right wing revolt, he must not only pretend that his most important act as governor never happened, but also actively campaign on a promise to repeal the federal law that he inspired. As we saw today, any deviation from that message threatens to undermine his already tenuous support among the Republican base.

To put it another way: when headlines from The Onion turn out to accurately predict real life events, you know that you’re in a very odd campaign.

Photo credit: Josh Reynolds, Associated Press

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump

Imagine this: You’re a clerk to a judge in a New York State court. You graduated from the Cardozo School of Law in 2010, and since then, you have worked as an associate in a New York law firm. For five years, you worked for the City of New York in its Special Litigation Unit handling law suits against the city. You have been the clerk to Judge Arthur Engoron since 2019, getting up in the morning and traveling by subway into Manhattan to your office in his chambers, or sitting beside him in court, advising him on cases, filings, motions – the constant flow of legal documents and questions that any judge in a big city court deals with constantly.

Keep reading...Show less
Trump Touts New Push To 'Repeal And Replace' Obamacare

The late Sen. John McCain gives thumbs down to Affordable Care Act repeal in July 2017

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

Donald Trump is once again living in the past, trying to resurrect a Republican political debacle that even the Freedom Caucus has abandoned: Obamacare repeal. “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives," he spewed on Truth Social on Saturday.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}