Romney flailing and failing

So it looks like Mitt Romney has decided settled on a strategy for overcoming the leaked video of him writing off nearly half of all Americans: he's going to ignore it. Instead, he'll attack President Obama for something he said 14 years ago: that he believes in redistribution at least in so far as it gives everybody a fair shot at success.

As you can see at the top of the post, the RNC has already released an absurdly dramatic video that makes Tim Pawlenty's ads seem tame by comparison and earlier today the Romney campaign released a memo going after the 1998 audio clip:

In a newly-unearthed set of remarks, we can hear Barack Obama in his own words advocating for government as a means to redistribute wealth:

'[T]he trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure everybody's got a shot.'

Mitt Romney has a very different idea. He knows that we need to foster growth and create wealth, not redistribute wealth, if our economy is to grow the way it has in the past.

Of course, as I pointed out yesterday, what Obama said (again, 14 years ago) is something that almost all Americans agree with. It's the reason we have public schools and Medicaid. In fact, when Romney went on Fox yesterday to hype this audio clip, he said virtually the same thing:

I believe the right course for America is one where government steps in to help those that are in need. [...] And the right course to help them is not just to have government handing out but instead government helping people to get back to good jobs.  

So Romney says he thinks government should help people who are in need, but he also says he thinks government should also help those people get jobs. It's worth noting that's much less harsh than what he said behind closed doors, but if that's the position he's going to take now, it's hard to see how he can possibly justify any criticism of what Barack Obama said.

And again, I'll note Obama said those words 14 years ago. And to be clear, I'm not noting that to exonerate Obama'what he said is not at all controversial. I'm noting it to prove just how desperate Mitt Romney is.

Romney also took to the pages of USA Today, penning an op-ed promising explosive economic growth if people vote for him. The only problem is that he forgot to share any of the details of exactly how he'd accomplish that. His final paragraph read as follows:

My five-point plan will deliver the economic recovery we've all been waiting for and the jobs millions of Americans still need. This can be more than our hope; it can be our future. And it can start this November with your vote.

And that was literally as specific as it got. Romney said he has a five point plan. But didn't say what it was. He didn't even say where you could find it. But I will at least give Romney credit for this: as empty as his op-ed was, it still wasn't nearly as bad as the one he wrote in 2008, proposing his plan for the auto industry: to simply let Detroit go bankrupt.