Romney Pulls TV Ads With Edited O'Brien Comments

MSNBC | October 18, 2002

[grania]

BOSTON -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney said his campaign pulled a TV ad depicting his Democratic opponent Shannon P. O’Brien as anti-business, after admitting the spot showed edited comments.

Another version of the ad that does not use an edited splice of O’Brien was substituted.

The withdrawn ad features O’Brien during the Oct. 1 gubernatorial debate appearing to say, "We’re not going out to get big dinosaurs from other states."

O’Brien’s actual statement was:

"We’re not going out to get big Fortune 500 companies to move here. The only way we’re going to get them to move here is with corporate welfare, with give-away programs.

"We have small companies that are on the verge of creating new technologies to create new therapies to help people. That’s how we’re going to create our jobs; focusing on the small- and medium-sized businesses. The cost of that will be far less expensive than trying to lure these dinosaurs from other states to come here."

O’Brien spokesman Adrian Durbin called the edited ad "sleazy, dishonest and unethical."

"They took 74 words out," Durbin said. "That’s 74 more reasons not to vote for Mitt Romney."

Romney on Thursday said the withdrawn ad did not distort O’Brien’s record. A spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, said, "Shannon O’Brien has repeatedly referred to large companies as dinosaurs."

Romney’s commercials are produced by Virginia-based political consultant Mike Murphy, whose past clients include 2000 presidential candidate John McCain.

The final decision on which ads to run is Romney’s, Fehrnstrom said.

Meanwhile, O’Brien said Wednesday that her stance on gay marriage is like Romney’s stance on abortion.

O’Brien says she personally opposes gay marriage, but if the Legislature passed a gay-marriage law, as governor she would sign it into law.

Romney says he personally doesn’t support abortion, but as governor would uphold the laws protecting abortion rights.

On gay marriage, Romney says he opposes it because marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman. He says he would veto gay-marriage legislation.

No state has approved gay marriage. Vermont is the only state to recognize civil unions among gay couples.

The other candidates for governor -- Green Party candidate Jill Stein, independent Barbara Johnson and Libertarian Carla Howell -- all support gay marriage.

Thursday’s Boston Globe reported that Romney endowed a management school with a $1 million donation to Brigham Young University, a school with antigay policies aimed at punishing, often by suspension or expulsion, students who engage in any homosexual activity.

Romney declined through a spokesman to take a position on the school’s policy toward gays. But Fehrnstrom said Romney’s donation was for the university’s "education mission," and Romney has no ability to affect the school’s policies toward gays.

Fehrnstrom also said Romney, who received his undergraduate degree from BYU and his MBA and law degrees from Harvard, gives to both schools, for education purposes and not to affect their internal policies. (AP)

[grania]

It should be beyond belief that the Romney campaign would give O'Brien and the Boston Globe such an issue. But, after the Lieutenant Governor fiasco of supporting vigorously (unknown) Kerry Healey over party favorite Jim Rappaport (I wonder how many of those votes were Democrats "helping" in the primary).

Most Massachusetts voters have voted for Republicans for governor for the last few elections. It's a desire for a check on the nutty legislature. But Romney's really pushing it.

[solzhenitsyn]

Shame!

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I've read O'Brien's unedited statement a few times, and it seems to me that Romney's edited version was an entirely accurate summary of her position.

She was saying that it was too expensive to bring big companies to Massachusetts, and therefore she would not try to bring such "big dinosaurs" to Massachusetts. That is exactly what Romney's edit says. I really don't see what's wrong with that.

[grania]

This is what Shannon O'Brien actually said, according to the posted article:

We’re not going out to get big Fortune 500 companies to move here. The only way we’re going to get them to move here is with corporate welfare, with give-away programs. "We have small companies that are on the verge of creating new technologies to create new therapies to help people. That’s how we’re going to create our jobs; focusing on the small- and medium-sized businesses. The cost of that will be far less expensive than trying to lure these dinosaurs from other states to come here

What she actually said is quite reasonable. It would be much better for Massachusetts to support innovation and jobs that originate here. These are jobs where residents can get in on the ground floor and grow their wealth along with the growing companies.

Do you really see a lot of established corporations moving here, with the shortage of cheap labor and inexpensive housing? What's Romney going to do to solve that problem?

Beyond that, it's an ethical issue to edit the words of someone and not say so.

Get used to it...liberals might think Shannon O'Brien is too conservative and conservatives might think she's too liberal, but most women I know admire her greatly for succeeding in a male-dominated universe (ie: the Treasurer's office mess she took over after Republican Joe Malone). Any nonsense Mitt Romney pulls that backfires (like this) just makes her look better.

O'Brien? Stein? Howell? hmmmm.........