Jan

Who will smear Mitt?

Who will smear Mitt, especially if he’s the nominee? No, not Gingrich and other conservatives. Sharp attacks aren’t smears. It will be the entire mainstream media apparatus.

The morning of the Iowa caucus, Reuters ran an innocuously entitled “news” piece called “Factbox: Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.”

Is this a dispassionate review of his record and policy recommendations? A biographical thumbnail sketch? Some context of his time as Governor of Massachusetts? Hardly. We learn, among other things, that:

He is a fifth-generation Mormon whose forebears were involved in the religious movement from the mid-19th century. Romney spent 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary in the 1960s, and speaks French. Some Christian groups and voters don’t consider Mormonism a form of Christianity.
In the 2008 campaign, Romney spent millions of dollars campaigning in Iowa only to lose to Mike Huckabee[.]
As governor of Massachusetts, Romney instituted statewide healthcare reform that became a model for Obama’s national policy. Romney has defended the state law while calling for the repeal of Obama’s federal version, a tricky balancing act.
Romney, a former venture capitalist, has centrist Republican proposals to cut corporate taxes, reduce federal regulations and cut spending. But he is seen by some as out of step with ordinary Americans. During one Republican debate Romney offered to bet $10,000 in a back-and-forth with Texas Governor Rick Perry.
Multimillionaire Romney has been a strong fundraiser – with more money than any of the other Republican candidates.
Animal rights groups criticized Romney during the 2008 campaign for an incident in 1983 when he drove 12 hours to Canada from Boston on vacation with the family dog in a crate strapped to the roof of their car.

Recap, in so many words:

Romney, a Mormon (i.e. not a “real Christian”) multi-millionaire venture capitalist, is a wishy-washy half-hearted proto-Obama who sponsored an primitive form of Obamacare in Massachusetts and seems unlikely to advocate the repeal Obamacare if elected. He is way out of touch with normal people, makes off-the-cuff $10,000 bets, and has spent exorbitant amounts of money campaigning in Iowa, the first time only to lose to Mike Huckabee. And, evil of evils, he speaks French and tortures dogs. Did we mention that Iowans are conservative Christian bigots?

Ah yes, fair reporting. I can remember now those stories about Obama’s church and pastor, Obama’s constituents’ intolerance, Obama’s history with his pets, Obama’s non-fluency in foreign language (maybe he speaks “Austrian”?), Obama’s millions of dollars, and Obama’s off-the-cuff remark that he was going to fundamentally remake America.

Whoever ends up as the nominee better be prepared for two front war: Obama’s campaign machine, and 95% of all mainstream press outfits, including the “news only” wire services.

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