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Mainstream Media Completely Misses Anti-Romney Subtext Of Mitt Romney ‘Attack’ On Newt Gingrich

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by Tommy Christopher | 10:28 am, December 8th, 2011

» 20 comments

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has had tongues wagging in the political media for the past couple of days, based on what has to be the weirdest attack ad ever. The ad is weird because it doesn’t contain a single mention of any of his opponents, or anything at all, other than Mitt Romney. It portrays the GOP presidential hopeful as a steady family man, and a loyal company man, but an adviser for Newt Gingrich knows what’s really going on, telling ABC News that the ad “is basically Romney saying ‘My family is better than your family.’ It’s going to backfire.”

Lost in all the hoopla surrounding the ad is how deeply it cuts, not at Newt Gingrich, but at Mitt Romney.

As the Republican primary race heats up, there have been a number of brutal ads that have generated buzz among the political news media, but this gauzy chunk of happy-talk from Mitt Romney has gotten the sort of reaction you’d expect from a snuff film:

The reaction to Romney’s ad would be comical if it wasn’t so dead-on. ABC News’ Jake Tapper reports on the ad’s glaring subtext, and the reaction from the Gingrich campaign:

To some observers, Mitt Romney’s new ad, aimed at Iowa Republicans, seems to be saying, “Yes, I’m Mormon. But at least I’m not a philanderer. Like Newt.”

As such, it carries considerable risks. Not only by reminding conservative evangelicals that he belongs to a religion many do not approve of, but also by taking on Gingrich – subtly, perhaps, but unmistakably -on his three marriages and past person indiscretions.

One Gingrich adviser told ABC News that the ad “is basically Romney saying ‘My family is better than your family.’ It’s going to backfire.”

Tapper goes on to point out that the ad could resonate with conservatives in Iowa, where the ad is running in advance of that state’s first-in-the-nation caucus. As many pundits have pointed out, though, Newt Gingrich’s personal history is very much a known quantity with Republican voters, and it hasn’t prevented him from vaulting to a hefty lead in the polls.

What’s really fascinating about this ad is how it cuts so deeply at both candidates without ever showing the blade. In Gingrich’s case, the mere mention of a faithful marriage is such an unmistakable jab that a senior campaign adviser feels the need to respond (with divorce statistics, to boot). That it seems not to matter to voters demonstrates their desperation to send out a bomb-thrower against President Obama, and belies the sincerity of their devotion to “family values.”

Romney’s ad also cuts against Mitt Romney, whose claims of “steadiness” and “constancy” may resonate next to Gingrich’s three marriages and history of adultery, but sound like punchlines next to Mitt Romney’s Kama Sutra‘s worth of positions on pretty much any issue you can name. In a bit of glaring journalistic malpractice, the press has been so fascinated with the ad’s anti-Gingrich subtext that they’ve completely ignored where that ad’s narration came from.

At Nov. 9′s CNBC Republican debate, moderator John Harwood called Romney out on the fact that he changes positions like a krump dancer with ADD, and asked him “What can you say to Republicans to persuade them that things you say in the campaign are rooted in something deeper than the fact you are running for office?”

Romney’s response was a complete non-sequitur that served only to reinforce the fact that he has no effective response to the charge:

It’s really a shame for Romney, because as Ron Paul‘s wood-chipper of an attack ad illustrates, chief rival Newt Gingrich is also vulnerable on this count. While his “attack” on Gingrich’s family life may not have much of an effect, it’s a stroke of luck for him that the media was too distracted by it to notice that Mitt Romney was also exposing his own most glaring weakness.

2012 Election, Ads, barack obama, GOP debate, Jake Tapper, Mitt Romney, newt gingrich

Anonymous

Romney has confused integrity with monotony.
Anonymous

Former democratic NJ gov. Corzine is the new Bernie Maddoff. I don’t think the media will miss that story. Former US senator as well.

But the Mitt Romney stuff, that’s just as important?? Firms like MF Global are supposed to separate client funds from company funds, and so this sounds like massive fraud. Get your republican-bashing in now, though, the MF global is looking bigger by the minute.

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/08/9296805-corzine-i-dont-know-where-missing-mf-money-is
Mo Fokker

I will be laughing hysterically at the people of Utah if Newt Gingrich wins Iowa, not to mention the Republican nomination.
Anonymous

The MF Global scandal is about to go ‘nuclear’, as Corzine’s statement that he doesn’t know where the $1.2B money is and admits to putting huge bets on european debt.

Corzine’s got to protect himself from prosecution, so this is going to be HORRIBLE optics. Pleading the fifth, ‘I don’t know’ answers.

Former senator, former governor, former Goldman Sachs trader, this will be interesting.

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/08/9296805-corzine-i-dont-know-where-missing-mf-money-is
Pablo

http://www.mediaite.com/?s=Corzine

Look, Jon Stewart made a funny! OK, move along now.
Anonymous

Well golly, Tommy. You’re just too stinkin smart! You’re right, Romney IS attacking himself. You’re awesome at your job! KTHXBYE
RW

As I said yesterday, Mitt Romney is trying to become the Republican’s nominee for president.
To conservative voters, being married to the same person for 42 years
is an achievement. It is hard to understand why anyone wouldn’t see it
as an achievement.

“Acknowledgement that this is an achievement is not limited to only conservative voters. ”
Yes – I agree
Anonymous

Sorry if your a republican or a democrat being married for 42 years is a achievement. I take it your single.
RW

I must not be a good writer. I agree with you – being married for 42 years is a very big achievement. It is hard work.

It is hard to understand why anyone wouldn’t see it as an achievement.
Anonymous

Hate to break it to you newt, but his family is better than yours. You and your gold bricking wife lack any morality whatsoever.
Anonymous

Jake Tapper says the ad reminds people that Romney is a Mormon because it demonstrates that Romney has only married once? How does that make sense to anybody? How does this ad remind “conservative evangelicals that he belongs to a religion many do not approve of”?
http://twitter.com/rtupplus Rick Terrell

Anybody but Gingich! We cannot give anyone the Presidency of the USA to someone who resigned the Speakership and resigned their seat in Congress. If he was so inocent why quit and run?? Plus, he was in bed with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac! He’s big government just like Bush turned out to be.
Anonymous

When is the last time we had a first lady that was a confirmed adulterer in the white house?
Anonymous

No, Tapper is referring to the ad’s explicit reminder that Romney has belonged to the same church his whole life.
Anonymous

It should be hilarious watching President Newt’s Solicitor General argue the Defense of Marriage Act before the Supreme Court. ROFLMAO.

You know, Rick Santorum’s been married 25 years…and he has SEVEN children. And he doesn’t flip-flop, either.
Anonymous

I see what you’re saying, but it seems to me that Tapper is reaching. I watch the commercial, and Mormonism never crossed my mind.
david r

Perhaps Romney is just taking the safe road, as always. Trying not to shoot himself in the foot.
Anonymous

I don’t think we have EVER had one and don’t expect to see any there in the future. what a horrible role model
Anonymous

Apparently Freddie and Fannie weren’t the only ones he was in bed with. Callista can swear to that. So can a lot of women around town, including his second wife Marianne who he was having an affair with when he was still married to his first wife Jackie who put him through college and then got the divorce papers after she learned she had cancer. Of course, Marianne got the divorce papers when she found out she had MS and he had already been having an affair with Callista for 6 years. He can’t keep his Johnson in his pants. Do you really want to see what he will do in the Oval office? After all, wasn’t it the republicans who hated Bill Clinton because he had an affair?
Porphyry

Tommy’s too stinkin’ something, & it ain’t “smart.” I didn’t even see the byline, but when the author essentially accused voters of hypocrisy, Commy’s hand showed.