Some prominent Mitt Romney supporters are saying the presidential hopeful's campaign should stop sending mixed messages about the Supreme Court's health care ruling.
Romney and his staffers have been going back and forth on whether to call it a tax as an attack on President Obama or not a tax, to preserve the argument that Romney never raised taxes in his state despite having a similar health care law.
Head spinning a bit? We'll backtrack.
On Wednesday, Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said the federal health care reform mandate constitutes a "tax," contradicting the way his senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, of the Etch-a-Sketch gaffe fame, characterized his position earlier this week. But the similar individual mandate and fee he signed into law when governor of Massachusetts is not a tax, he said in a separate interview, citing the Supreme Court's decision last Thursday.
In March, Fehrnstrom made headlines for saying in a CNN interview that the transition from the primaries to the general election was "almost like an Etch-a-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again."
Some people are calling the tax chatter another Romney flip-flop. Others are calling it the Etch-a-Sketch redux. Others, like editor of The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel, are saying this incident makes the previous gaffe look like solid campaign strategy.
Romney now says health mandate is a tax. Making that Etch a Sketch look downright steady,stable and full of integrity.
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Katrina vandenHeuvel (@KatrinaNation) July 05, 2012And now, plenty of people, including his supporters, are hitting Romney on the issue and letting him know that either he needs to get himself aligned with his staff on these issues, or scrap some of the staff and get a new game plan as they charge into the general election.
Media baron Rupert Murdoch, never shy on his views, tweeted that while he supports the former Massachusetts governor he believes Romney needs to shake up his staff to have a chance to beat Obama's seasoned campaign staff.
Met Romney last week. Tough O Chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from team and hires some real pros. Doubtful.
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Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) July 01, 2012And apparently, that tweet upset the Romney campaign, which prompted Murdoch to follow up with a tweet on Monday. He said he wants Romney to win, but instead of the campaign upset about the criticism they should heed some of the good advice Murdoch feels Romney is getting about trying to get his campaign in order.
Romney people upset at me! Of course I want him to win, save us from socialism, etc but should listen to good advice and get stuck in!
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Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) July 02, 2012
Murdoch's tweets of fury were followed by agreement from Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, and then a blistering editorial from the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.
Welch tweeted that he hoped Romney's camp would heed Murdoch's advice, noting that the Obama campaign staff is a well-oiled machine at this point.
Hope Mitt Romney is listening to Murdoch advice ont campaign staff..playing in league with Chicago pols..No room for amateurs
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Jack Welch (@jack_welch) July 02, 2012And the Wall Street Journal went further with an elaborate editorial that declared the tax or not a tax issue is indicative of larger campaign problems. The editorial says what could have easily been a choreographed way to attack Obama has essentially turned into a political defeat for Romney.
"Why make such an unforced error? Because it fits with Mr. Romney's fear of being labeled a flip-flopper, as if that is worse than confusing voters about the tax and health-care issues. Mr. Romney favored the individual mandate as part of his reform in Massachusetts, and as we've said from the beginning of his candidacy his failure to admit that mistake makes him less able to carry the anti-ObamaCare case to voters ...
His latest mistake is of a piece with the campaign's insular staff and strategy that are slowly squandering an historic opportunity. Mr. Obama is being hurt by an economic recovery that is weakening for the third time in three years. But Mr. Romney hasn't been able to take advantage, and if anything he is losing ground.
The Romney campaign thinks it can play it safe and coast to the White House by saying the economy stinks and it's Mr. Obama's fault. We're on its email list and the main daily message from the campaign is that "Obama isn't working." Thanks, guys, but Americans already know that. What they want to hear from the challenger is some understanding of why the President's policies aren't working and how Mr. Romney's policies will do better."
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Romney talks out of both sides of his mouth.
I keep reading all of this negative stuff about Mitt Romney, being a flip-flopper, an etch-a-sketch man, etc... Mitt is a good person. I think he really means good. His problem is, "Mitt is CONFUSED". Why is that so hard for people to understand?
I wish there a check box on the side to hide posts like this.
There is, it's called "Report Abuse". I don't think you can "Hide" because you don't agree.
The "Hide" tab is called Faux News.
Boo Hoo. Rob doesn't like what other people have to say when they don't agree with him. I guess Rob doesn't believe in free speech or America
Romney needs to follow Bush make Cheney his VP.... Secrecy rules!
Mitt could get more of my attaention if he actully had a plan.
Folks this is just how Wilber T. Hornswaggle takes care of business. Create a smokescreen of contradictory BS and then steal everything he can get his hands on while everybody is blinded by the BS. What is going to be very entertaining is watching the replays of how all the prominent republicans (never mind the rest of humanity)felt about Romney prior to his becoming the de facto republican candidate. Talk about flip flop! This man is going to get ripped to shreds in front of billions of viewers once the debates start and I promise you he will be confronted with his true history, become extremely agitated and angry on TV (i.e., "blow his cover") and that will be the end of one Wilber T. Hornswaggle.
You get a good sense of how the candidate will go about managing the country's affairs by observing how he/she manages his/her election campaigns. The Romney team is all over the place. What a mess.
Just check this out. It tells you what the penalties are in MA for not having insurance. http://www.massresources.org/health-reform.html
Who cares if it's called, a tax, a penalty, a fee? It's money out of your pocket one way or the other. I am actually for the mandate. How can someone decide that they'll never need health care? Once they're inevitably proven wrong, they end up costing all the responsible people paying for it a ton more money. The problem with it in MA is that not all companies ONLY operate in MA and that caused a lot of issues.
Dear conservatives: Romney will not repeal Romneycare. He may say he wants to, but he wont. Use some common sense. Do you really think someone who put so much time an effort into advancing healthcare in his state, that is now nationwide, will suddenly repeal it? He wont. He wants your vote, and that is all. What you will end up with is "It will cost too much to the healch care industry to reverse all the changes they've already done. It will be cheaper to leave it be.".
A CONFUSED person has trouble debating. I don't think Mitt will do too well.
Romney will say anything to get elected. Kinds like that old joke. How do you tell is a politician is lying? His mouth is open.
He will say anything to anyone, pander to anyone. Zero true convictions. If the Republicans get their way we will have a new pledge of allegiance. It starts like this... I pledge allegiance to the United Corporations of America.
Thank you.... good article. This is why Romney will fail in the fall. No one knows where he stands. How can he say anything is a tax when he clearly has the same thing in his state that he calls a penalty, come on, you can't fool anybody. And the worst thing is, he totally believes everything he is saying, what turned from serious to a circus, must be a headache for republicans that align themselves with Mitt Rmoney.
Hey Rooster:
Whatexactly is good about Mitt? Heand five sons avoid the military, Mitt ships jobs to China, and puts his
Fortune inanother country. Is this a "good person"?
Mitt Romney is toast.