Mitt Romney Puts the Republican Spin about Sandy in Bill Clinton’s Mouth

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:39 am

Mitt Romney is now claiming that Bill Clinton told him that he might have won, were it not for Hurricane Sandy.

ABC reports on a Romney phone conference:

Romney: “I spoke with President Clinton the day before yesterday, he called and spent thirty minutes chatting with me. He said a week out I thought you were going to win. And he said, but the hurricane happened, and it gave the president a chance to be presidential, and to look bipartisan, and you know he got a little more momentum, and of course he also said that when he was watching Ann speak at the Republican convention, he decided he was tempted to join the Republican Party. So he may have just been effusive with generous comments as he chatted.”

Obviously, Romney is having a tough time with reality. Not only did his first debate bump not last past the improving economic numbers just days later, but this is the man who put words in Australia’s Foreign Minister’s mouth in order to attack Obama.

The idea that Bill Clinton would suggest that he was tempted to join the Republican Party after watching Ann Romney speak is, at best, an example of Bill’s charm. At worst, it is not true or is an exaggeration of a nicety thrown out by Clinton to the loser.

Bill Clinton is one of the best politicians around. He knows the hurricane did not win the election for Obama, although Obama’s competency in dealing with it did not hurt. Obama was already winning in the swing states, where he swept Romney, leaving him “shell shocked”.

The narrative that the hurricane did Romney in is a Republican talking point, desperately being spread around in order to excuse the candidate and Karl Rove for their failure to deliver a win to wealthy donors who were told Romney was winning.

If Mitt Romney was told this and he believes it, it is only more evidence of his utter lack of discernment. This is not the first time Romney tried to co-opt Bill Clinton for his team, and he may have thought that sharing this story would suddenly make the blame-the-hurricane narrative more feasible. Sometimes, politicians say appeasing things to the loser. Those things are not necessarily true.

If only Mitt Romney could have dealt with the reality of his campaign on day one or at any time during the election, he might have been able to at least craft his message in order to avoid an epic fail.

But this is Mitt Romney — showing us once again why he really lost this election. Mitt Romney is so blinded by his own reflection that he can’t see what is right in front of him. It wasn’t the “gifts”, the hurricane or Chris Christie. It was him.

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Sarah Jones

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