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New Mitt Romney Ad Features President Obama’s Response To Fox News’ Ed Henry

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by Tommy Christopher | 1:25 pm, October 14th, 2011

» 64 comments

In a sign of the lightning-fast times, President Obama‘s chop-busting exchange with Fox News’ Ed Henry at Thursday’s joint press conference is the star of a new Mitt Romney ad that was released later that same day, and was “exclusively previewed” on Chuck Todd‘s The Daily Rundown this morning. The ad cobbles together bytes of the President and his advisers saying Romney’s name, and as the ad’s title suggests, poses them as a sign that the President is “Nervous” about Romney’s candidacy.

The ad itself is rather silly, featuring twitchy video effects applied to 13 mentions of Romney’s name by officials and advisers to President Obama, and the President himself, with graphics that suggest the President isn’t worried about jobs as much as he is about Romney. Aside from that ludicrous premise (Romney and his rivals mentioned the President 45 times in one night; they must be basket cases!), I recognized at least one of those clips as being of a decidedly not nervous Jay Carney quoting Romney’s eloquent defense of the individual health care mandate as a conservative idea. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that turn up in an Obama For America ad sometime soon.

The spot also suggests that “the White House” is spending too much time on Romney, and not enough on jobs, but most of the clips are of David Axelrod, and one is of departed Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, neither of whom have worked in the White House for quite some time. Most of the Axelrod quotes are from a single press conference call from Wednesday, pegged to Tuesday night’s Republican debate.

Additionally, the President actually mentioned jobs 13 times during the joint press conference alone. To paraphrase Bill Burton, he’s not that into you, Mitt.

What is true, though, as Chuck Todd points out, is that the Obama campaign has made Mitt’s inevitability as the Republican nominee a focal point of their early campaign efforts, and not in a good way. Former Obama spokesman Bill Burton has been hammering that theme like Old John Henry for months, contrasting Romney’s soft-but-consistent support with the parade of non-Romneys that continue to rocket past him in the polls, and back down. It’s the subject of a new Burton memo out today, entitled “What’s The Matter With Romney?”

From a media perspective, the Romney ad is unusual in the way it makes use of Fox News Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry. While reporters often appear in campaign ads as background, it is the reporting that’s the focal point, not the reporters themselves. Whether or not you think the President’s jab at Henry was fair, taking it (and Henry’s image) and putting it into a campaign ad crosses a line that most reporters would draw rather brightly. Absent context, what does Henry’s inclusion in the ad infer about him and his network? It’s one thing to have an adversarial journalistic posture toward an elected official, but quite another to be dropped into an ad for the other “team.”

Romney’s campaign could easily have played the President’s remark over a still photo, as it did for many of the David Axelrod quotes, and avoided drawing Ed Henry into the campaign.

Possibly damaging inferences aside, most reporters on the White House beat are loath to become the story themselves, preferring to let their work speak for itself, and this is true of Ed Henry more than most. I doubt very much that he would ever approve of this use of his image in a campaign ad.

While the footage itself is public domain, the Romney campaign really should have reached out to Fox News and Ed Henry to see if they would object to his image being included in the spot. Fox News confirms to Mediaite Managing Editor Colby Hall that the Romney campaign did not reach out and ask for permission. The Romney campaign has not yet responded to our request for comment.

Here’s the Romney ad as it was shown on The Daily Rundown, along with a new DNC ad that hits Romney over one of his debate responses:

2012 Election, barack obama, Bill Burton, Chuck Todd, Colby Hall, David Axelrod, Ed Henry, Jay Carney, Mitt Romney, President Obama

Michelle

Barry is lucky to have you, Tommy. You deserve an extra large Christmas bonus this year.
Concerned Citizen

Tommy you would make a great offensive lineman assuming the running back was Obama. You are constantly blocking and running interference for him.
Michelle

Tommy, will you ask Barry about this over drinks tonight:

Obama Spoke About “Fast & Furious” Before Holder Claimed He Knew

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/10/13/obama_spoke_about_fast__furious_before_holder_claimed_he_knew.html
Anonymous

Barry is Nixon .

“A few months ago, I had dinner with a journalist who knows President Obama somewhat well and admires him in several respects. He told me something that didn’t particularly surprise me – but which was useful to have confirmed. This person’ said Obama is enormously thin-skinned, he remembers and keeps track of negativthings said and written about him, and he is a person filled with many more grievances and resentments than one might imagine. He feels sorry for himself – and he is inclined to lash out, in his own emotionally contained way, at even slight criticisms.

For a reporter to ask a president a question that includes a quote from a person from the opposite party is about as common as the sun rising in the east. So what explains the president’s snarky response?
The answer, I think, goes back to what my dinner companions said: Obama is exceedingly thin-skinned. Beyond that, he expects to be coddled by, if not worshiped by, the press. And of course Obama carries a particular resentment for Fox News, which doesn’t treat him as the world-historical, Lincoln-like figure Obama sees himself as.”

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/10/13/obama-personality-nixon/
Anonymous

Oh brother.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Reasonable-Views/100002798439588 Reasonable Views

This is exactly the type of campaigning that we should expect for the next 12 months. If the Republicans nominate their candidate a year ahead of time, he is going to have to act like an opposition party leader and take the heat in return. Romney’s going to have to do more than complain about the economy for a year, and that will probably be much harder than it sounds. Our take on a 12 month, British-style opposition leadership scenario is here: http://bit.ly/nbmDpl
Yy

Deny, deflect and disparage.
Anonymous

Maybe the Left should go back to ignoring Romney’s existence. Or perhaps they can return to the ploy of using the word “weird” as a code word for Romney’s religious beliefs. How about running photos of him eating hot dogs? Can his waistline be turned into an issue? Can a reporter move into the house next door, and spy on him? Can’t the Left find a way to turning him into a “birther”? He must be a racist, no?

Or how about this idea: maybe the Left should show a willingness to engage in actual policy discussion and debate on the economy and other key issues.

Nah, that won’t happen….Mark my words, you will see more articles at Mediaite on Romney’s religion than on his 59-point plan for economic recovery. That’s an easy call, since Mediaite won’t even dare whisper the details of Romney’s actual policy positions on the most important issue of the whole election. And this evasion and intellectual chicanery is why the Left has already lost the 2012 election.
Anonymous

If you have read any of Tommy’s articles you would realize he has crossed a line from journalist to cheerleader.
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

What a bunch of sniveling crybabies!! Instead of discussing the merits of the article, most of you just blame Tommy!!

NewsFlash!! This is not the Fox Nation… not every article has to have the ignorant, Republicon point of view!!
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Crybaby!!
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Crybaby!!
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Crybaby!!
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Crybaby!!
Exgoper

If these people aren’t being pandered to 24/7 they start whining. And then barking like mad dogs.

How must their families put up with them?
Michelle

Is he wrong? Yes or No?
Michelle

Um, I’m not crying, just asking Tommy to practice some actual journalism at some point. He’s got the JournOlism down pat!
Michelle

Broken record.
Michelle

And maybe over cigars you can ask him for is comment on this:

A top U.S. Treasury official has testified that never before in his
28 years at the department had a loan guarantee been restructured so
that private investors could leapfrog over taxpayers to be repaid in a
bankruptcy situation. At least, not before bankrupt solar panel
manufacturer Solyndra.

Gary Bruner, who said he had been at the
Treasury Department for 28 years, including five in his current position
as the chief financial officer at the department’s Federal Financing
Bank, made the revelation under questioning from Rep. Cliff Stearns,
R-Fla., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee’s oversight
panel.
Tex45

Idiot
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Lol!! Their families left them long ago!!
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Your so-called “journalism” is over at Fox Nation!! They bash Obama in every article… and that’s what you’re looking for!!
Michelle

profound
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

He’s wrong!! If someone disagrees with the merits of the article, then state it!! But to constantly call out Tommy is ridiculous!!
TomT

troll alert
TomT

troll alert
Michelle

Crybaby!
Guest

Alinski?
Guest

I agree. I cant believe Obama would say that in a press conference. I would say he acted “stupidly”.
Guest

I agree. I cant believe Obama would say that in a press conference. I would say he acted “stupidly”.
Guest

I agree. I cant believe Obama would say that in a press conference. I would say he acted “stupidly”.
Guest

I agree. I cant believe Obama would say that in a press conference. I would say he acted “stupidly”.
Guest

I agree. I cant believe Obama would say that in a press conference. I would say he acted “stupidly”.
Guest

Hey…quit talking about the OWS demonstrators like that….They are patriots, because $3.6 million worht of George Soros money says so!
Anonymous

Anyone notice the poor sad sad couple (middle class) in the democrat ad – with the massive house behind them? lol (besides portraying them as stupid with their bobbing heads – the brick house is not a middle class anything (unless it’s in overpriced d.c.)
Anonymous

Tommy, the only “reporters” credibility that was damaged was yours. Honestly, perhaps it’s time to give the rah-rah over to someone who isn’t quite as blatantly biased as you are.

You look at republican’s (and their ads) with such jaundiced eyes that you fail journalism 101. Calling Fox to demand (or want) to know what they think is pretty pathetic also). I’m sure Fox is quite capable of “thinking” without you “thinking” what they should “think”. I mean really????
Exgoper

They should get combat pay!
Exgoper

Solyndra has become the new conservative code for “We can’t argue this point and we’re now officially changing the subject.”
Exgoper

Please, Michelle. Just admit it. You can’t stand it when your bias isn’t being pandered to. Let’s be frank: if there’s no Obama bashing in this piece, you’re just not interested.
Exgoper

Simpleton!
RW

I thought President Obama’s response to Ed Henry showed him as a nasty, crotchety, mean-spirited person. It was similar to the nasty comment he had for Hillary Clinton during a debate – you’re likeable enough.
Michelle

So Tommy does not have a liberal bias?
Michelle

Well since this is a media site, I think my criticism of said media is quite relevant.
Michelle

Yeah, that’s it.
Michelle

It happens so frequently, no one even notices anymore.
Michelle

Speaking of George, he’s putting the Alnsky on Reuters:

Criticism Causes Reuters to Backtrack: ‘Soros Isn’t a Financial Backer’ of Occupy Wall Street

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/criticism-causes-reuters-to-backtrack-soros-isnt-a-financial-backer-of-occupy-wall-street/
Cianook

the lds/romney kolob cult in full swing this morning!

very creepy/very cultish!
hatessnark

I would say it was rignt on, that little hair challenged Ed Henry is a twerp.
hatessnark

It’s another in a long series of meaningless references to what the right hopes will become a big scandal, Obama doesn’t have any obvious ones, so they make them up.
hatessnark

Is this all you’ve got, he is thin skinned? A lot of the dopes who post here seem to be thin skinned when they don’t like someone’s comment. and what does exceedingly thin skinned mean, that he is getting more thin skinned, you make no sense, your post is a pile of crap!!!
hatessnark

wow, you are so “thin-skinned”.
Michelle

Um, I didn’t mention Romney. You’re the creepy one, emphasis on CREEP.
NeverWrong

Thumbs Up…!
Exgoper

Tommy, Michelle is lucky to have you. You help her channel her craziness.
Rio

hatessnark, you don’t appear to live up to your name.

btw, guffaw, lol, hair challenged you say? Why, the first thing that comes to mind, is Obama. Perhaps he could use some help from that expensive, personal hairdresser the wifee drags around the world.
Rio

Here we have another little one trick pony that is right on cue. All Michelle has to do is comment and we have freaks jumping out of the bushes.
Exgoper

If Michelle’s comments didn’t always rely on the same, tired, worn out cliches and easily knocked-down talking points, she wouldn’t make herself such an object of ridicule here at the site.
Rio

No, realist.
Rio

Sheesh, everyone’s a comedian.
Rio

If Obama can’t control himself when it comes to a reporter one would think he might want a lot of subjects changed. As a matter of fact, it looks like the WH is doing quite a bit of distracting lately. Wonder what they will come up with next now that they put boots on the ground in Africa?
Rio

That’s not the case at all. Since I’ve been here there has been a group that has followed their , ahem, smarmy leader, and have jumped on the attack Michelle bandwagon……..doesn’t matter what she says, the knee jerk reaction is to attack “her” not the so-called “cliches” and “talking points.” And, if there is anything that is “tired/worn out” it’s the nonsense and childishness that one following the other is doing in here, sit back and look at it, look at what you’ve attached yourself to. Then you blame her for your behavior, she made you do it, eh? Pathetic.
Anonymous

Let’s be honest, Michelle, it wouldn’t be a Christmas bonus coming from the White House — a non-denominational winter holiday bonus is more like it.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1497076194 Travis Pierson

“Romney and his rivals mentioned the President 45 times in one night; they must be basket cases!”

No. Actually, they’re competing for his job. Feel free to go back to any of the Democratic candidate debates in ’08 and see how many times the candidates mentioned President Bush – and he wasn’t even going to be on the ticket. Further, go back and count the number of times he has mentioned Mr. Bush’s name in shifting blame since he was elected and compare it to the number of times President Bush blamed Bill Clinton for the problems he faced during his two terms. The score will be Obama in the hundreds and Bush in the ZEROS. This is not because Bush came into office heading up a problem-free America. It’s because he possesses a level of decorum and respect for the office Obama simply doesn’t have.

The fact is, Barack Obama is the President. The results of his policies show he’s not very good at his job and he diminishes himself and the office even further by repeatedly calling out individual Representatives, Senators, journalists, candidates, entertainers and private citizens – by name – whenever they disagree with him. It reveals a level of petulance normally not witnessed in anyone over the age of 15. I can hardly wait until he’s fired and we have an adult back in charge. January 2013 can’t come soon enough.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_D7PBZ3RBZ42BSOI52XBTJEJFY4 bill q

well, besides being thin skinned he is inept, corrupt, dishonest, and hates the United States of America, and is a muslim. Other than that barry boy is just hunky dory.