Romney Clan Battles for Straw Poll Ridge

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Okay, so now we’ve listened to this audio that the Romney campaign released to rebut the AP story which quoted him saying that his sons had chosen to work for his presidential campaign as opposed to fighting in Iraq as a way to serve their country.

I’d say that listening to it in the context of his rather lengthy gee-golly explanation takes a bit of the edge off the remark. But not that much. Basically instead of shooting right from the hip with his sons’ campaign work as a form of national service, this point comes at the end of a much lengthier silly response.

But, hey, you decide.

Late Update: I think TPM’s Eric Kleefeld, currently subbing over at Andrew Sullivan’s site, gets closest to the mark on this one, adopting what amounts to a mens rea analysis of Romney’s buffoonery. Eric doesn’t believe that Romney “is so insensitive that he would intentionally compare the service of our troops to people working for his campaign.” But Romney’s ad lib pablum is so mindless, inane and self-serving that such an unfortunate incident was bound to occur sooner or later.

Latest Editors' Blog
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: