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David Gregory Says Plouffe ‘Broke New Ground’ By Saying Mitt Romney ‘Has No Core’

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by Tommy Christopher | 3:32 pm, October 30th, 2011

» 26 comments

On Sunday morning’s Meet The Press, host David Gregory told his panel that senior White House adviser David Plouffe “broke new ground” in attacking GOP establishment presidential hopeful Mitt Romney as having “no core.”

Republican panelist Mike Murphy thought Plouffe owed Romney an apology, while Tom Brokaw pointed out that “the record is there,” but they’re all later to this party than Rip Van Winkle’s Members Only jacket.

Gregory played a clip of his earlier interview with Plouffe, in which the senior White House adviser told Gregory that Romney “has no core,” and that if Romney “thought it was good to say the sky was green and the grass was blue, that to win an election, he’d say it.”

Panelist Tom Brokaw said he thought “using the core question probably took it over the edge just a little bit. But the record is there about how he’s flopped.”

Brokaw disagreed with fellow panelist and GOP consultant Mike Murphy, who earlier said that Plouffe should apologize to Romney because politicians change positions “when they get new information.”

This is really an apples to orchards comparison, though, since Romney has a long record as the political world’s Bert Campenaris. Jake Tapper, who’s regarded as about as impartial a reporter as there is in Washington, recently noted that on the issue of Libya alone, Romney took a Kama Sutra’s worth of positions. In Romney’s case, the “new information” appears to be poll numbers, if anything.

Whether you agree with Brokaw or Murphy, though, this attack by Plouffe is about as groundbreaking as a balsa wood shovel. former Obama spokesman Bill Burton‘s Priorities USA Action PAC has been hammering Romney on this since the Mesozoic Era. Longtime Obama adviser David Axelrod made news in August when Politico reported a broad strategy to target Romney as “weird” (which Axelrod disputes), quoting Ax as saying “Presidential campaigns are like MRIs of the soul,” and ““If you were to write the history of his political career, it would be called ‘Extreme Makeover.’”

Burton even used the exact phrase “Mitt Romney has no core principles” in comments to Mediaite in August. The Romney campaign, for its part, put out a campaign ad that touched on Team Obama’s blistering attacks. Their premise, that the Obama campaign is “nervous” about Romney’s candidacy, might be a slight overstatement, but it definitely reflects the fact that the President, and his advisers, see a Romney nomination as a near-inevitability.

The fact that Mitt Romney flips like Nadia Comăneci on an IHOP brunch shift probably won’t stop him from getting the GOP nod, and it will certainly be an issue for him if/when he has to face Barack Obama, but the Obama campaign’s relentless assault on Romney is nothing new.

Here’s the clip, from NBC News’ Meet The Press:

2012 Election, barack obama, Bert Campenaris, Bill Burton, David Axelrod, David Gregory, David Plouffe, Meet the Press, Mike Murphy, Mitt Romney, Tom Brokaw

Jonathan Cantor

Can say the same thing about gregory…
fyonalon

Thanks Mediaite. More NBC less Fox please.
Anonymous

LOL @ Tommmy’s “Mitt Romney flips like Nadia Comăneci…”
http://twitter.com/jtanglewood76 realist

David Gregory is a piece of shit.
Anonymous

David Gregory is quickly becoming the face of the “Out-of-Touch/Cosmically-Slow-to-the-Punch” media landscape.

“Coming up next: Have you heard of this new thing called Twitter? It’s becoming pretty popular…”
Anonymous

Republicans get mad whenever somebody tells the truth.
APKay

To me Plouffe’s comment just seems like a fine example of Democrats being able to lift talking points from GOP’ers who don’t like Romney.

Ought to show the GOP the perils of attacking players on the home team, but it won’t.
jayp

If this show was straight down the middle, we should never really know which side David Gregory is on…but it is all too transparent, week after week…
Anonymous

Did Obama shut down GitMo? Did he run to the left of Hillary on Iraq during the 2008? Did he run in 2008 against an individual mandate only to demand one once elected?

Who is it that has no core?
MIKE

I like his Campenaris comment. Bad analogy by Tommy’s standards.. Camp was an excellent baseball player who played SS though if needed could play all nine positions He played 4 positions only once in his over 20 year career He’s in the Hispanic Hall Of Fame and the Bay area Hall of Fame. Made the All Star team many times. Comparing Romney to a baseball player that could help his team wherever needed is a great compliment. I’m sure Romney will appreciate the comparison.
Anonymous

How many positions did Obama take in 2008 that he stuck to Tommy? I know it’s not fair to hold your guy to the same standard but lets at least try.
Anonymous

The reason you changed the subject is because the truth does not serve you. All Republicans are systematically trained to run away from the truth.
Anonymous

Most of these morons never make it more than 50 miles outside of DC to know what a normal human being thinks, let alone looks like. If Gregory had to make a connecting flight in middle America he would PURELL® his entire body afterwards.
J M

so is your mom! oooohh
Anonymous

Being a Truther does not mean you know the “truth”. You and truth have never met.
Anonymous

What would it take to get you to discuss the issue being discussed? Do you realize that you’ve been programmed to run away?
Anonymous

Just my two cents: I don’t think it’s necessarily about whether a politician changes his/her prior position, it’s more about when they do it (i.e. election time vs. currently governing) and the frequency with which they do it that affects public perception of their motives.
Anonymous

Oh , David new ground , have you listened to the Republicans for the last three years.
expatpatriot

Romney’s principle-free stance, love of situational ethics, and utterly reliable hypocrisy are obnoxious to voters right and left.
http://twitter.com/tchanta Alfred Heyiwe

Mitt Romney, Layoff Artist and political acrobat.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Be/1751243136 Dave Be

152 promises kept, 46 compromises, 52 promises broken, according to politifact.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Farax-Shirwac/100001414842261 Farax Shirwac

Funny how you don’t refute the statement but deflect it.
Anonymous

Don’t you find it a little disingenuous to mock others for flip flopping, Tommy? Afterall, a daily review of your rants will show that the positions you take depend on the politics of the guy involved. What’s good one day, is bad the other. In other words, what’s flip today, is flop tomorrow.

But, one thing you are consistent on is your defense for all things Obama. The POTUS could kick your dog in the face and you’d apologize on behalf of tootles for getting doggie saliva on the POTUS’ loafers.
Jonathan Cantor

touche!
Anonymous

I agree — there was very little news about Mitt!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MPPK2CTPRQYEYSXVOFVUJRX3SQ ken

So you can’t be a shameless whore at your core ? What is it, an affectation ?