According to Paul Begala, before he passed away in 2008, Ted Kennedy gave him a tutorial on how to defeat Mitt Romney. Obama and the Dems followed Kennedy’s advice, and won.
On the second page of a story for Newsweek, Paul Begala wrote about a tutorial Ted Kennedy gave him on how to beat Romney before he died,
Our goal was to take Romney’s greatest strength—his business record—and make it a weakness. We were given a road map by none other than the late, great Ted Kennedy. As the 2008 election was approaching, I paid the senator a visit. I thought Romney might be the GOP nominee, and Kennedy gave me a tutorial on how to beat him. Don’t underestimate Romney, Kennedy said. He’s smart and resourceful and will say anything, take any position. Kennedy recounted how his campaign team tracked down employees of companies that had been shut down after being bought by Bain Capital. Shamelessly copying Kennedy’s plan, we interviewed dozens of laid-off middle-class working people. Their stories were emblematic of the collapse of the middle class: factories closed, health benefits canceled, lives ruined.
My old friend, former Georgia governor and senator Zell Miller, taught me that “a hit dog barks,” but Romney remained silent. I am still amazed that Romney did not respond. He allowed our little, underfunded super PAC to define him as Gordon Gekko. Without his business record, Romney was left with nothing but his charm.
Begala used Kennedy’s tutorial in his work with the woefully underfunded Priorities USA super PAC, and their results this little group got may have cost Romney the election.
Priorities USA hit Romney all summer long with devastating ads that followed the Kennedy map of featuring workers who lost their jobs because Romney’s Bain took over their company.
An ad titled Heads or Tails typified this strategy:
Priorities USA also hit Romney on Bain, his tax returns and his plans for the middle class:
Heads or Tails was released in May when Mitt Romney had no money to reply. Mitt Romney was helpless, and Democrats defined him as a heartless job killer in swing state after swing state.
The impact was devastating on the Republican nominee. All summer long Priorities USA and the Obama campaign each followed Kennedy’s advice. By the time Romney got his act together, it was too late to push back effectively. Romney lost swing state after swing state in the summer before the election, and these ads were a main reason why.
Nearly four years after he passed away, Ted Kennedy helped engineer one last Democratic victory. Kennedy originated the road map for beating Romney in 1994, and much to the shock and dismay of Republicans the exact same strategy worked again in 2012.
Ted Kennedy passed on years before this election, but political genius lived on and played a critical role in reelecting Barack Obama in 2012.
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Anne
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 6:28 pm
Actually, Romney’s “business acumen” has turned out to be nothing more than a negative talent for corporate raiding. Investing seems to be more his forte, since he didn’t create anything. Just as Ted Kennedy exposed Romney’s flip-flopping and his avarice that showed itself by bankrupting companies, firing emoloyees, and outsourcing their jobs, he paved the way for President Obama to also expose these things. They turned out to be weaknessess rather than strengths, because no one with an ounce of integrity would see corporate raiding as something to be proud of. In addition, the flip-flopping showed the lack of a moral core. Romney was only about winning by any means necessary.
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robert banks
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 6:37 pm
I love it, a victory from beyond the grave… most likely his final defeat. Romney’s failed campaign = a billion+ dollars. The look on his defeated face during concession speech = priceless.
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Jo Hargis
Nov. 12th, 2012 at 11:19 pm
Priceless indeed!
Yanno, I’ve seen lots of elections in my years, and if “my guy” lost, I was a little disappointed but I moved on the next day. This time was different. This election had an urgency and a poignancy to it unlike any other. I know I’m not alone in saying I got tremendous satisfaction in knowing that we beat back the big money, they didn’t get to buy our election; we beat back their voter suppression and all their other disenfranchisement attempts; we beat back the worst liar ever to run for president, disgracing the office of President; and mostly, we flat out dodged a big bad bullet.
It warms my heart to know Teddy was playing his part =)
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AFM
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
At least people who lost their jobs being sent overseas got their sweat revenge.
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Sally
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 6:52 pm
I don’t see how Romney COULD respond. It was all true, wasn’t it? He is an entitled SOB, which came through in every debate, the few interviews he allowed, and the behind the scenes videos. Ann made things worse..pretending to understand the plight of poor or even middle class, women. It’s not Democrats’ fault that Mitt made his fortune on the backs of decent working people. That is all on him. I am glad the ads worked: this man would have been devastating as President. My God, he wouldn’t even help a Bain owned entity pleading for his help three weeks before the election, a move that COULD have saved him some voters. Instead, he ignored their pleas, as he ahs done all his life, and pretended that he never ever not on your life sent jobs to big bad China, where he still has investments.
And had the media even once done an expose′ on the true intentions of the Mormon Church regading this country, he would never have gotten the nomination to begin with.
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A Walkaway
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Not only did he ignore their pleas, but Romney also stiffed his campaign workers and left them stranded far from home.
(I just happen to have the link.)
http://www.examiner.com/article/mitt-romney-cuts-off-campaign-workers-credit-cards-leaves-workers-stranded?cid=db_articles
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Sandra
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Long live the memory of Teddy Kennedy. He was rich, yes, but he was a man of the people and truly cared about the less fortunate and worked hard for a more equal and fair society.
Romney got busted as a greedy, selfserving, unpatriotic, unamerican opportunist who made his fortune through the suffering of American workers. His lack of a moral core and his arrogance in thinking he was entitled to be POTUS through some warped sense destiny. Thank God over 60 million smart, informed Americans disagreed and told him NO, he’s not worthy.
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Callie
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 7:12 pm
“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
Thank you Ted.
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Sugapea
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
Yes, and Robert Reich took it even a step further…with ‘hand-drawn by Reich himself’ cartoon explanations, making it easy for the average American to comprehend exactly the business damage Mitt Romney had truly left in his wake. Something I’d never seen created for the Internet before:
‘How Did Mitt Romney Get So Obscenely Rich?’ The Magic of Bain Capital’s Profits Explained in 8 Easy Steps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rodifJlis2c&noredirect=1
Brilliant Dem collaboration all around!
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AntieQ
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Thank you, Senator Ted Kennedy!
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Paws
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 7:35 pm
I really never saw Romney’s business experience as a positive for him. Running a country is much different than running a business and considering what the majority of Romney’s business experience resulted in (closed businesses, jobs shipped overseas, etc.), there’s no way it could ever have been a positive.
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brigita Petrutis
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 7:48 pm
Thank you, Jason, for bringing to light this very prescient ability of the late, great Ted Kennedy. Despite the personal scandals, his foresight and ability to strategize made him one of this country’s greatest assets. I lined up to say farewell, in the first block out of Scudder Lane in Hyannisport. I still cry thinking about that.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
Romney never did anything to create jobs. He kept saying he did but he was not in that business. Certainly he helped companys such as toys r us and others, but it they had shown a drop of weakness they would have been gone. And he did take his millions out of them. He was a harvester in his own words. No interest in jobs, no interest in the economy.
That was so obvious when he did what Kennedy said. Take any position and say anything.
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Mrs Gunka
Nov. 10th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
He took down KB Toys to make Toys R Us stronger. I’d like to see a list of all the businesses he destroyed. And the number of people he “liked to fire”!
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nomad
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 6:47 am
Here’s a story to warm the cockles of your heart. It is one of the few Bain Capital stories that gave me any pleasure at all.
http://nomadicpolitics.blogspot.com/2012/07/bad-karma-how-romneys-bain-capital.html
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SeekingTruth
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 1:35 am
Thank goodness the advice from Ted Kennedy was followed, it was spot on!
Thank goodness Romney did not make it to the White House! It’s hard to imagine where he would have taken this country!
It is frightening, however, that so many people were willing to vote for him without knowing what he was all about??
We cannot stop now, but continue to look FORWARD and work towards the mid-term elections in 2014. We cannot afford for the same thing to happen as in 2010!
We must also keep reminding the President that he must protect the interest of those who worked hard to make sure he was a “two-term” President. He cannot lean over backwards trying to satisfy those who worked hard to make sure he was a “one-term” President! Hopefully, he has learned a lesson about trying to negotiate a “big bargain” with someone who does not have the best interest of the majority of people at heart!
Does anyone notice how, the GOP jumped out with their spin on the direction the President needs to go, before we could celebrate his re-election and our hard work?
We all understand that Boehner and the GOP does not have the leverage they had even though they still have the majority in Congress! The President ran on raising taxes on the rich and cutting taxes for the middle-class. The sooner he does this, the better, by whatever means necessary! It’s time he uses the full powers of the Office of President to move America FORWARD!
It is fine to meet with all leaders from the Hill and everyone else, but we cannot afford to get bogged down in lengthy discussions that go nowhere and in the interim, lose the main points of the mandate from the election!
In any competition,it does not matter how close the race is when a winner is declared,it is over. The GOP are sore losers and have already started their whining and non-support for the President. We cannot afford to let them to continue to get away with this behavior. We need to strongly call them out and…
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nomad
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 6:42 am
I laughed out loud when I got to the part “Romney was left with nothing but his charm.”
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Gindy51
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 7:54 am
Me too, nomad. Romney and charm do not belong in the same sentence except to say he has none.
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Eykis
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 9:41 am
Mittens, his QueenWannabe and his nasty sons have ZERO charm – they are overly wealthy plutocrats with no idea of how the world works and how people live. Sneering is NOT charm.
Thanks, Ted, glad the Democrats listened to you, it was always OBVIOUS, however, Gordon Gekko is exactly who Mittens is and will be – cheap as well, leaving his staffers with no way to get home. What a prick. That is me being nice.
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Sandra
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
In complete agreement with both post re. Romney’s charm. I’m thinking it was said in jest or snark.
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Lori
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
“Stop it!” “You people.” “This is hard!”
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Margaret Courtney
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 11:26 am
In addition, when you look at the wealthy Kennedys’ commitment to helping the less fortunate vs. the wealthy Romneys’ commitment to lining their own pockets, the difference between a true public servant and a greedy, power hungry megalomaniac becomes apparent. Romney has the charm of a serial killer: zero empathy, complete lack of concern for right or wrong, and cruelty to animals.
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charles bourget
Nov. 11th, 2012 at 11:36 am
The RR (Paul Ryan etc) are the 12%approval rated stooges that represent the 1% crazzies /sociopaths that took a subersive oath to cause harm to the USA..
SOCIAL POLITICAL SCABS in direct violation of their sworn oath to not “Violate the Publics Trust” an impeachable offense..
These people are of sub standard character ie: as the Nuns related “IMMORRAL”
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