Rudy and ugly. LOL! Yeah, very professional. I'm glad they follow their own advice.

That should have read rude and ugly. Grrrr

oh. my. god. if this guy gets the nomination i am going to be .... well .... shocked on a moral level, but not surprised on the American political system level

Thanks norm…I have relatives who are LDS and tend to not see things for what they are very well. In my battle to educate it is helpful to have resources such as this -- keep up the good work.

To be fair, the lobbyists don't run his campaign, they just tell him what to say and do... which is worse.

Johnson was doing his job, with concrete examples. He was being a competent journalist who sticks to the truth he knows. And there was a disagreement with the candidate.

That's the way it is supposed to be. He challenged the candidate on his statments, at some cost to his comfort level and very possibly some professional ramifications.

This was a good day for journalism. Good work, Mr. Johnson.

I'm glad you uploaded this clip. When I first watched this on Countdown I was so relieved that Romney finally got the blow he deserves. What a dumb prick.

I'm no psychologist, but it seems to me that many politicians have similar personality traits like this and I think Romney is the stereotypical example of all those traits combined.

I think that's why Bill Clinton was such a "cool" president because he didn't act like an old, elementary school, asshole principle (if you know what I mean). That's also why I like Obama more than all the other candidates.

I'm definately posting this clip on my del.icio.us btw.

Local Utah news cut the story off right after the "Come on, I never said Lobbyists were RUNNING my compaign.." And didn't play anything else. They have such a love affair with that damn Mormon it's disgusting.

Thanks for the whole clip Norm. And thanks to KO for the entire background and the veracity of the claim.

wtf is a 'compaign'? Sorry.

I'm always a little leery of the "home side" bias in this kind of subjective assessing... Does me proud when the Lefter, Liberal, Libertarian side call a more thoughtful, measured verdict leaving the fascionista corporatists and rock-ape red necks to rote-recite their unspeakable Sunday-School slobber for public view. But I think the guy on his ass came off kinda whiny and heckler-ish (still lounging on the shop floor after the event, it will strike many as appearing). Like an alternate-universe Michael Moore who never hit it big... but still wants to stick it to The Man.

And I didn't see any vampire-exposed-to-sunlight retreat from Romney. Even though he had only a mind-meltingly shallow parsing of definitions to escape being a liar. For a guy dogged with a "Ken, friend of Barbie" performance tag this milieu let him put up a show that'll swoon some more brethren to his side and may even tip a few legally sane people too. It let him out of the Ikea box and show people a (french) mustard side to his "personality". Now the Aristocrats and Trust Fund Gaddabouts in the gated communities are a little surer he has no trouble standing up to defend Himself/CEO's/Idle Rich/God/(other) when needed. He wasn't "on fire" sure, but I did see a marshmallow wilt a little.

The journalist should've raised the issue and let everyone at home draw the conclusion from the implication themselves. Mitt seized that incident like an extra-ordinary, non-performance based, tax-free, prime dividend bonus (courtesy of whatever working-man pension fund is being fleeced in a given week).

I like the fact that he got called unprofessional for doing his job properly.

I agree that the clip is an instant classic as I've heard it described. It tells you a lot about the media--they follow the candidates around all day while the latter speak BS directly to people who aren't really paying attention. The media is paying attention, however, so they get annoyed with BSers. Every once in a while this is the result.

Matthew Yglesias is a prominent liberal blogger who voted for Romney when the former was at Harvard. One may think that Yglesias is regretting Romney's rightward turn. But no, Yglesias thinks that Romney's pandering to the dumbest mental tics of the right ("double Guantanamo!") is actually a fake show that Romney is doing because of his very low esteem for GOP voters.

Interesing theory. It would explain why Romney decided to run for gov in MA. But it is a case of actually underestimating the the intelligence of the electorate. The GOP voters are not buying it, and I wouldn't expect them to. The establishment, however, smartly realizes that after this 180 Romney is the property of the right. If he ever were able to win the White House it would be not he Bush formula, not with independents or Democrats.

Some days I really dislike Romney's campaign, sometimes it's kind of unobjectionable. I'm not voting GOP but none of the candidates make my blood boil on a personal level. Maybe it has to do with the fact that none of them will probably be able to win. 62% of voters say they would definitely not vote for Romney. His name is out there now, and people really can't stand the guy.