As Guy reported this morning, Mitt Romney won the coveted endorsement of swing state Iowa's biggest newspaper, the Des Moines Register. He's the first Republican to do so in 40 years, making it the highest-profile to flip from Obama in 2008. It's a pretty significant development for the Romney campaign -- and a little unsurprising after the Obama camp's bizarre behavior with the DMR last week.
Yet while attempting to sound totally unworried about the state of the race, Obama's deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter sounded...worried:
Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter on Sunday dismissed the Des Moines Register endorsement of GOP candidate Mitt Romney, saying it was not “based at all in reality.”
“They endorsed Mitt Romney in the primary, so this was not much of a surprise,” said Cutter on ABC’s “This Week” of the influential swing-state paper’s backing for President Obama’s challenger.
“It was a little surprising to read that editorial, because it didn't seem to be based at all in reality, not just in the president's record, but in Mitt Romney's record,” Cutter added. “It says that he'd reach across the aisle, which he'd do the exact opposite. It's the exact opposite of what he did in Massachusetts.”...
“Over the course of running for president over this last six years, he's never once stood up to the far extreme right wing,” she said, citing the controversy over Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s recent comments on abortion and rape. “Just this past week we saw it, when he wouldn't take down his ad for Richard Mourdock, who had -- you know, it's a now famous comment that it's God's will if a woman gets pregnant through rape. He's not willing to stand up when it matters.”
Her response was essentially predicated on calling the paper delusional, and attacking their reasoning behind supporting Mitt. Of course, it's no surprise -- after all, her job is to get the other guy elected, so you'd hardly expect her to congratulate the opposition on what is a really big get -- but claiming that their endorsement doesn't matter, and also, that it's not based in reality? That's pretty desperate. She even managed to swing the conversation in the "war on women" direction, which is about the only clearly defined message Obama's put forth this campaign season -- and party why he's not doing so hot in the polls, since women report caring more about the economy than abortion, and Romney's winning that issue. So...remind me, who's not based in reality?
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