RELATED: Top Romney Advisor Eric Fehrnstrom: Romney Does Not Believe Health Care Mandate Is A Tax
On July 1, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch tweeted that after meeting with unspecified members of Romney's campaign team, he was not impressed.
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.
Murdoch took enough heat from his criticism to again take to twitter to clarify, if not retract, his remarks.
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!
But if there was ever any doubt that Murdoch was absolutely correct, it was dispelled on Monday when Romney's senior campaign advisor Eric Fehrnstrom appeared on MSNBC to completely undercut the potential electoral boost that the Republican presidential campaign received from the Supreme Court finding the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act to be a tax rather than a fine.
When asked by NBC News' political analyst Chuck Todd how the Romney campaign reacted to the Supreme Court's decision, Fehrnstrom allowed himself to be boxed into a corner where he found himself agreeing with the White House and Congressional Democrats.
'What we put in place in Massachusetts is a penalty and [Romney] disagrees with the Court's ruling that it is a tax,' he said.
'So he agrees with the President,' Todd followed up.
'That's correct,' Fehrnstrom replied.
' Come again?
The Supreme Court has just handed Romney perhaps the most winnable argument in the modern political era ' he is now able to campaign against the largest single tax increase (correction: 10th largest tax increase in history, and single-largest in nearly 20 years) on the lower middle class in American history. What's more, it is only selectively applied to those citizens who occupy a demographic or geographic location out of favor with the federal government.
Ranging up to over $700 per year for adults and over $300 for children, this tax is applicable to some 400,000 taxpayers below the poverty line but will be paid only by a select few who were unable to receive some exonerating status in the law or a federal waiver (according to the Congressional Budget Office). The Affordable Care Act, God's gift to Republicans in 2010, has been made rendered even less politically toxic by the Supreme Court ahead of 2012.
And Fehrnstrom's instincts are to unilaterally cede that advantage?
I understand that the Romney campaign is particularly wary of having a conversation on health care reform, given Romney's having put a similar law in place when he served as the governor of Massachusetts ' but I cannot believe that this is how the Romney camp wanted to frame this issue.
This is amateurism. Ferhnstrom may have done possibly irreparable damage to the Republican case that a Romney administration would lead the charge to repeal this law in total (a path favored by clear majorities or pluralities consistently since the law was passed).
In March, Fehrnstrom made a rather innocent gaffe in saying that candidates undergo a rebirth after the primary election process is complete. He likened it to the 1970s-era toy Etch-a-Sketch when the candidate's proverbial slate is wiped clean. Partisan liberals shirked in mock revulsion over what they stretched to mean a candid admission that Romney was a man of no clear principle ' but Ferhnstrom was inartfully expressing a truth that every political professional is aware of.
But this goes beyond inartful expression ' this is a betrayal. The Romney campaign needs professional communicators with past presidential campaigns under their belts if they want to play this dangerous game of dancing around the health care issue.
Campaigns are often afraid to clean house lest it be construed as a sign that the campaign is floundering, erratic or rudderless. But the alternative ' losing the message and ceding the high ground as Fehrnstrom did on Monday ' is far worse.
Romney's campaign should heed Murdoch's advice. Abandoning the Supreme Court-yielded advantage is simply inexcusable. The stakes are too high for Romney's campaign ' two strikes and Fernstrom must be out; the campaign probably cannot afford a third.
Watch Fehrnstrom's latest gaffe below via MSNBC:
Editor's note: This post has been edited since its original posting ' Jon Nicosia
> >Follow Noah Rothman (@Noah_C_Rothman) on Twitter
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Somewhere today Rick Santorum is curled up in a heaving ball of rage sobbing over and over 'I told you Romney was the worst guy to go against Obama on healthcare'
Bwhahaha This is YOUR nominee GOP!
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Ahh yes, s m e l l t h e t u r d'see you in november BwaaaaaaHaaaaa
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'Abandoning the Supreme Court-yielded advantage is simply inexcusable.'
I agree, Romney needs better liars.
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He just told the truth (buried with talking points, but still') kinda refreshing since Romney campaign is generally not known for telling truth.
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What a ridiculous garbage, another propagandist who would want to see professional political liars making dishonest claims and pushing misleading drivels rather than people he chooses to describe as incompetent and treasonous just for stating the objective and honest facts, what a pathetic little man.
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You're exaggerating the potential impact of the ruling. This is hardly in the same class as Bush Sr raising taxes in 1992. The mandate was already well known and generally disliked, whether called a tax or a penalty. Politicians can play their games of semantics as they feel they must.
Nonetheless though, yet another gaffe from Fehrnstrom.
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Yes he screwed up and told the truth. I'm sure they'll be running that clip on Fox 24/7! Not!!
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Where exactly is this team of 'professionals' that would basically sabotage their careers trying to polish the turd that is Mitt Rmoney?
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If the Romney camp really wanted to 'clean house,' Mitt would have to be the first one to go. lol
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Santorum?
seriously?
that nut case?seriously?
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Too bad, I think Axelrod, Donna Brazile and David Plouffe are busy this cycle.
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Santorum was right. But what did you expect Romney to say? That the Supreme Court was right and it was a tax both on the national level and on the state level? It was already a lose-lose situation. Romney is the least qualified person to argue about Healthcare Reform. Like someone said on Fox News Sunday, maybe he and Obama can come to an agreement where none of them have to talk about healthcare. Unfortunately, Obama still has the best argument: 'It wasn't politically popular, but I stuck with it because it was the right thing to do.'
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They have a long way to go to catch up with Obama's lie list.
I mean this guy wrote his (first) book about himself and it was all lies and distortions.
The idea that Obots go on the net and go on and on about how Romney is a big liar is not only amusing, its fascinating. Im always amazed by how incredibly clueless so many people (especially Obama cultists) actually are.
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Romney did not tell the truth when he said he never raised taxes as governor
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The conventional wisdom is that Willard is notoriously cheap and doesn't pay the salaries or fees top notch people command. If that is correct, 'you get what you pay for' is once againg.
A personal observation is Willard had a huge ego, but a terribly fragile one, and that he never surrounds himself with people who may appear brighter or more engaging than he. Fehrnstrom confirms my observation.
At any rate, kudos to Todd. Great work. Again.
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