Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is rapidly gaining the reputation among people of MANY political persuasions as a candidate who is redefining “playing loose and fast with the facts,” came out against FEMA during the primaries — but is avoiding the issue right now. He gives us our (non) Quote of the Day:
“Gov are you going to eliminate FEMA?” a print pooler shouted, receiving no response.
Wires reporters asked more questions about FEMA that were ignored.Romney kept coming over near pool to pick up more water. He ignored these questions:
“Gov are you going to see some storm damage?”
“Gov has [New Jersey Gov.] Chris Christie invited you to come survey storm damage?”
“Gov you’ve been asked 14 times, why are you refusing to answer the question?”
Here’s the reason: in a truly stunning development in our political culture, Romney is getting off without any substantive media or political consquences for a)discarding past positions at almost the flick of a light switch b)denying he held positions that it’s documented he held c)running a political ad that claims Jeep will export jobs overseas that reporters of all political persuasions says is not true and that Chrysler has said is a falsehood.
But we’re seeing the bar now set lower than it has been set before:
–A candidate is not accountable the press (talking to Sean Hannity doesn’t count)
–A candidate is not accountable to the facts.
If Romney wins, get ready for a whole new template on how to do politics — because politicos in both parties will see how this worked.
The video:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.