Diane Sawyer Versus 'Too Rich' Romney

Townhall.com ^ | April 18, 2012 | Brent Bozell

[Kaslin]

Republican strategists should generally be wary of campaign advice from liberals -- and when it's from the media, generally becomes definitely. Washington Post political writer Chris Cillizza recently suggested Mitt Romney's general-election strategy should start with getting a "positive first introduction" to voters through the liberal media because "only the national media can provide that megaphone and serve as a sort of validator for him."

How hard did he laugh after he wrote that?

No Republican should think he could end-run the liberal media establishment entirely and not suffer damage. Ask Dick Cheney. On the other hand, no Republican can expect fairness from these people, either. Romney should enter the national-media coliseum fully aware he's designed to be food for the lions.

Exhibit A comes from ABC's Diane Sawyer. This is how Sawyer probed Obama just after the 2006 elections: "Do you think that residual resistance is greater for race or for gender? Is the nation secretly, I guess, more racist or more sexist?" In keeping with that line, Sawyer would be expected to ask Romney today if he felt his wealth would be used against him by those who begrudge success. Not even close. Instead, she implied Romney should be dismissed as a Richie Rich or Thurston Howell type who can't connect to the little people. On "World News," she hammered Romney with five questions about his wealth and his tax returns.

Sawyer announced "the Obama campaign is working overtime to paint the portrait of a man whose riches have put him out of touch." She then offered the Obama spin: "the speaking fees, the Cadillac, the story out now that there's an elevator for your cars in the new house you're planning in La Jolla. Is this a relatability problem?"

There's an obvious answer that Romney did not give. "Diane, you make $12 million a year. The ritzy Manhattan penthouse, the wealthy movie director husband, the estate on Martha's Vineyard. Does that make you too rich and elitist to relate to your audience?"

Romney's actual answer wasn't bad. "We don't divide America based upon success and wealth and other dimensions of that nature. We're one nation under God. We come together. This is a time when people of different backgrounds and experiences need to come together."

Sawyer simply replied by calling it "fairness" to resent the rich: "Do you still face a fairness question ... about envy, (as in) fairness is concern about envy?"

Romney adroitly tossed the fairness issue right back. "I think it's unfair that this president has been in office three and a half years and 93 percent of the people who lost their jobs have been women."

Sawyer hammered him about the tax returns: "Why not release 12 years as your father did?" She said Romney gave 23 years of tax returns to the McCain campaign during the vice-presidential vetting process in 2008, so why not release those?

Do you recall Sawyer even asking for this from John Kerry?

By contrast, Sawyer's last interview with the current president ended with her asking how much Kentucky would win by in the NCAA basketball tournament and she compared Obama to Lincoln, as she encouraged him to talk about his prayer life: "What about the famous quote from another beleaguered president, Abraham Lincoln, who said he had been driven many times to his knees because his own wisdom and that around him 'was insufficient for the day'?"

Obama replied: "I do a lot of praying." Actually, he does a lot more golfing on Sundays.

Sawyer asked Romney about Mormonism and whether he could "really talk ... about something that holds a lot of curiosity for people? ... do the people think you're reluctant to talk about being a Mormon?" Sawyer did not ask Obama, "Your mother was an atheist who married two Muslim men. Are you reluctant to talk about that?" Never mind Jeremiah Wright.

Sawyer even stooped to raising that stupid -- and 29-year-old -- story about Romney putting his incontinent dog Seamus in a car-top carrier on a family trip. "First about Seamus -- which as you know is out there forever -- would you do it again?"

One host on NPR actually called Romney "the Michael Vick of presidential candidates." Sawyer underlined the vulnerability: "You said it was the most wounding thing in the campaign so far." That's why she wanted to ask it.

So for the record: Bill Clinton was never asked by a TV anchor whether he raped Juanita Broaddrick in 1978. But they can ask Mitt Romney if he shouldn't have put the doggie in a car-top carrier in 1983.

If anyone can point to anything Sawyer has ever asked the Obamas that compares to this low personal blow, they should speak up. This is just the opening mud bath. It's going to get only worse for Romney as we get closer to November.

[Doogle]

Diane Sawyer is a television journalist and has a net worth of $40 million. Diane Sawyer made her net worth working in the Nixon Administration, followed by a career as co-anchor and correspondent for several news programs, including 20/20 and 60 minutes, and is now an anchorwoman for ABC world news. She was born in Glasgow, Kentucky.

Diane Sawyer Salary

How much does Diane Sawyer make per year as host of ABC news? $12 million

[Cringing Negativism Network]

millionaire-on-millionaire violence ping.

[Diogenesis]

This is a barometer of what is coming.

The RINO Romney guarantees the end of America
and (deservedly) the GOP.

[jersey117]

We didn’t hear this when too-rich Kerry was running.

[LRS]

There's an obvious answer that Romney did not give. "Diane, you make $12 million a year. The ritzy Manhattan penthouse, the wealthy movie director husband, the estate on Martha's Vineyard. Does that make you too rich and elitist to relate to your audience?"

Oh! If only!

[Bigh4u2]

“No Republican should think he could end-run the liberal media establishment entirely and not suffer damage.”

And then there was Ronald Reagan,who, in fact, did do an ‘end run’ around the liberal media.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

I really don’t think Romney will lose, if he ends up our nominee. Not trying to be a supporter on this forum, but of all the things Romney is accused of, one criticism I don’t think has merit, is that he’s somehow unelectable.

He’s quite determined to win. Unlike McCain. Romney doesn’t secretly want to lose. He’s not self-destructive.

(both characteristics of McCain)

How far is multi-millionaire journolista Sawyer going to get, whining about someone being rich?

It’s so ridiculous, as to more likely help Romney.

[ripley]

“We didn’t hear this when too-rich Kerry was running.”

Did you know that Mr. Kerry served in Viet Nam?

(just asking)

[Diogenesis]

Romney CANNOT win. HE ALWAYS LOSES after being exposed.

THAT is why RINO ROMNEY FLED Massachusetts.

[Diogenesis]

Romney does NOT DESERVE to win the nomination.

Romney for Obama in 2008

Late in October, The American Spectator's The Prowler revealed:
"Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers…
have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election.
'Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,'
says one former Romney aide…
'The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney.
"Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a 'diva' and was going off message intentionally."

---

The Palmetto Scoop reported: "One of the first stories to hit the national airwaves was
the claim of a major internal strife between close McCain aides and the folks handling his running mate Sarah Palin."
"I’m told by very good sources that this was indeed the case and that a rift had developed, but it was between Palin’s people and the staffers brought on from the failed presidential campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney, not McCain aides."
"The sources said nearly 80 percent of Romney’s former staff was absorbed by McCain and these individuals were responsible for what amounts to a premeditated, last-minute sabotage of Palin."
… aides loyal to Romney inside the McCain campaign, said The Scoop, reportedly saw
that Palin would be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2012 or 2016, which made her a threat to another presidential quest by Romney.

---

"These staffers are now out trying to finish her off ….hoping it would ingratiate themselves with Mitt Romney."

---

"Who's the Palin Leaker from the McCain Campaign?
National Review Online The publication of a Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin
appears to have opened old wounds in the McCain campaign.
... the source of the “Diva” leak was Nicolle Wallace’s husband."

---

"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"

"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"

"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"

"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"

"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"

---

[Cringing Negativism Network]

“Romney does NOT DESERVE to win the nomination.”

-

No argument there.

I wanted Palin to be our standard bearer.

[Texas Eagle]

Ha haaaaa!!!

So, Mitt, how's that effort to reach out beyond the "true believers" who watch FOX News working out for ya?

[mkjessup]

Sounds like Mitt-Witt has found his running mate.

“Mr Chairman? I give you the next Vice President of the United States, DIANE SAWYER!”

You KNOW her ego would force her to accept, the media would go into convulsions (probably of laughter), but it would at least be entertaining.

[FrankR]

In my mailbox today: "We're supposed to be angry at how Mitt Romney spends HIS money, but not care how Obama spends OUR money?".

[EQAndyBuzz]

As a Republican Strategist(retired) this is what I would tell Romney.

1. Sunday morning shows are out. They already know you.
2. Weekday morning shows aside from Fox are out. The libs aren’t changing their minds and the independent democrats and republicans watch Fox.
3, Go on every conservative show, especially O’Reilly. Real conservatives already know you are liberal. It’s the independent liberal republicans who vote conservative you are after. Conservatives are only voting for you because they have told their nose and vote for someone or else T’s another 4years of Obama. Also, they will vote down ticket and you just happen to be in the same column.
4. Every chance you get, attack the MSM. They are not on your side and people are waking up to the media bias. Keep hammering them over it in every interview. Newt did it and it works.

If you win the nomination, insist on a Fox Debate as a precursor to debating on any other station. Any group that has moderated debates in the past are your enemies. Ask for specific moderators for any station. When they say no, exploit it. Force Obama onto Fox.

Take ownership of Romneycare. You had a liberal statehouse with liberal policies and you were doing what you thought was right because that is what libs do. It didn’t work, blame your statehouse for forcing it on you. Bama will blame you for it. Agree and tell him it was wrong for Mass and will destroy the country.

Finally. This election is about one thing. You are a Mormon. The MSM carried you here because your religion is going to take you down. You can talk around being rich. You can talk around being white you can talk around being a man. As far as being a Mormon, to the left that is your Achilles heel. You take that off the table or say, so what, Obama is a Muslim, you are ahead of the game. Once this stars happening you run 1 commercial.

“My Muslim faith, you mean Christian faith”

I so do not want you as the nominee. But if you are, this is how you will win.

[Rummyfan]

Washington Post political writer Chris Cillizza recently suggested Mitt Romney's general-election strategy should start with getting a "positive first introduction" to voters through the liberal media because "only the national media can provide that megaphone and serve as a sort of validator for him."

How hard did he laugh after he wrote that?

The sad part is that Cillizza probably didn't laugh - he's so cloistered he actually believes it.

[Rummyfan]

"Diane, you make $12 million a year. The ritzy Manhattan penthouse, the wealthy movie director husband, the estate on Martha's Vineyard. Does that make you too rich and elitist to relate to your audience?"

Good point! Romney needs to go on the offensive wit hthe libtard media.

[Rummyfan]

"We're supposed to be angry at how Mitt Romney spends HIS money, but not care how Obama spends OUR money?".

BRAVO!

[Kaslin]

Yeah, he does