After Ryan, Romney cancels TV interviews (including Gwen Ifill)

[kpete]

Source: Politico

After Ryan, Romney cancels TV interviews

By DYLAN BYERS | 8/11/12 11:43 AM EDT

Mitt Romney has cancelled this weekend's scheduled television interviews, following today's announcement that Paul Ryan had been tapped as running mate.

PBS Newshour confirms that the Romney campaign has cancelled today's interview with Gwen Ifill, which was to air on Monday. The Romney campaign also cancelled one-on-one interviews with local networks in the Virginia area, where Romney launched his bus tour.

The Romney campaign did not respond to request for comment.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/08/after-ryan-romney-cancels-tv-interviews-131785.html

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hmmmmmmm...

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. are they getting ready to pull a switcheroo?

Freudian slip on the ship this AM?

[progressivebydesign]

8. OMG. Maybe Romney did NOT misspeak when he intro'd him as the "next president" of the U.S.

Do you think??? Or is Ryan just schooling Romney on the Ryan/Norquist/Koch/Rand ways???

[Berlum]

28. That was part of the Republican OCCULT maneuver they so carefully planned

Nothing happens by ac cid ent

[dixiegrrrrl]

68. Did he really "intro'd him as the "next president" of the U.S."?

I missed that bit...tell me more, pls.

[monmouth]

27. I think Romney is tired, too much "work" for him after a hectic week..LOL..n/t

[Roy Rolling]

41. Cancelled Media Appearances

"Romney cancelled all media appearances and polls showed an immediate 10-point bump"

[monmouth]

44. Bwahaha..Good one....n/t

[Justice wanted]

46. I was been thinking the Leadership of the party wants Romney out. He can't capture the base the

way Ryan can AND after he caused so many problems overseas Romney really screwed himself.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Is Romney stepping down?

?w=468&h=344

[goclark]

9. That is the first thing I was thinking

Rmoney is on total overload and he really needs Rehab

[Rosa Luxemburg]

26. could be correct

well hopefully they don't steal the election like Bush did

[nxylas]

61. Oh, they'll try

If the Democrats have any sense, their election campaign will be about 45% actual campaigning, 55% trying to ensure that everyone who is eligible to vote is allowed to do so.

[MissNostalgia]

42. I cant even imagine the horror

This is chilling.

[a2liberal]

3. gotta work on a new "message" (set of lies) first... (n/t)

[TeamPooka]

15. getting their stories straight

[wordpix]

25. especially since O's "Son of Boss" ad, see post #24

[truthisfreedom]

4. Their numbers are down so far there's no hope, and Ryan will not help.

Plus, rMoney doesn't even know the guy, so he'd be hard-pressed to answer any questions about him.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. That's weird. What's going on?

I just don't get this.

[Firebrand Gary]

10. That's a very Palin move....Canceling interviews???? Hmmmm

I don't get it either!

[JDPriestly]

37. Romney most likely reads enough and knows what day it is and the names of.

newspapers. So he is way ahead of Palin in that respect.

Romney has an MBA and a law degree from Harvard I believe.

Romney's problem is that he is a poor little rich boy -- a Little Lord Fauntleroy for those in my generation. He is simply spoiled and does not know what life is like in our real, Main Street world.

Our refrigerator broke down. We had to call a repairman.

Romney doesn't have to deal with calling the repairman when his help's refrigerator breaks down. Even when his wife cooks, they don't have to worry about the cheapest way to repair the refrigerator. And they certainly have no anxiety about the cost of losing a refrigerator full of food to spoilage. They have no idea, no clue as to our problems, or ordinary, everyday problems.

[amandabeech]

50. Rmoney is a spreadsheet geek.

He likes numbers, not people.

I don't like what Bain did, but it is easy to see that it reflects its creator, Mitt.

Running the U.S. government does require the leader to known some numbers, but it is more important that the leader can work with and understand people.

Harvard law and b schools likely do not communicate with the graduate departments of psychology, sociology and political science.

So . . . if students of law a b schools don't "get it" with people before they matriculate, then they won't learn it by graduation.

[bucklaw]

60. HE IS USING HIS HARDWARE STUFF.

Bushy two graduated from Harvard and Yale. Can you say, "REFUND?"

[global1]

6. Very Interesting - Hmmmm.......

does his campaign staff have to prepare him with answers for questions that might come up now that he picked Ryan. Have the been looking at the comments being made here on DU and the President's response to the pick and are now having second thoughts?

This could get interesting.

[LibDemAlways]

7. This is rich. Rmoney doesn't want to answer questions about

his taxes, his business dealings, and now, apparently, his choice of running mate. He gives new meaning to the word wuss.

[wordpix]

19. +1000 - "I made positive news today with the Ryan pick, and no questions will be answered"

[coalition_unwilling]

22. "You people know all you need to know about my decision" - n/t

[BREMPRO]

11. wtf! should be huge media blitz to promote his VP pic.. they are amateurs..

as Romney always says (projects) about Obama = he's in over his head.. no idea what he's doing... this has to be the most lame ass disorganized loser campaign i've ever seen... maybe they need to have an emergency rebranding and campaign rhetoric orientation session now before they hit the press? (should have already done this in advance) fizzzle!!

[LibDemAlways]

13. They already screwed up majorly in making the VP

announcement at 9 AM on a Sat. on the East Coast when most of the country was still asleep. These people are in way, way over their heads.

[BREMPRO]

70. Right! Saturday am? That's when you pass legislation and make recess appointments you don't want

anyone to know about!

I suspect there is a smugness and arrogance that comes from the top.. Romney himself making these calls.. used to being in charge and not listening to advisors at risk of hurting his own delicate oversized ego. They probably told him 1) don't pick Ryan and 2) don't announce your vp pick saturday am.. he said.. no i'm going to do it my way.. i'm decisive and smart.. Ryan's my guy and i'll let the little people know on Saturday am... it's decided. final answer. lol!!

[LibDemAlways]

71. As another poster commented, they might as well have done it at midnight. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

[tularetom]

12. In the immortal words of Gob Bluth

Romney realizes "I've made a terrible mistake".

[tavalon]

59. Gob Bluth

LOL

[Athame]

67. Gob Bluth

Perfect reference. We were just rewatching last night. Now I will have Romney in my head whenever we see Gob again.

[bayareaboy]

14. Mittens! ...

Mr Incommunicado.

It is gonna happen a lot more too. I guess he feels now that his handlers have it in control. Just play the one he did with Shepard Smith at FOX, over and over, if you want to see the real man.

[Snarkoleptic]

18. Domo Arigato Mr. Incommunicado (err roboto)

[JDPriestly]

38. Ryan was on Social Security benefits at 16. He has worked for the government

or in jobs not in the business sector all his life, and is that well off at his young age. How did he do it? Where did the money he invests come from?

Is his wife's family wealthy? Where did her living trust come from? We need to know the answer to these questions. Who has provided Ryan's cushion, his personal and private safety net?

How much has his wealth increased since 1998 when he first came to Congress?

[csziggy]

65. Ryan's wife was a lobbyist when they married

And comes from a politically active family:

Meet Janna Little Ryan, Who Wants To Be America's Second Lady

Janna Little Ryan grew up in Oklahoma, the niece of the state's former Democratic governor and senator. She graduated from Wellesley College, the private women's college in Massachusetts whose alumnae also include Hillary Clinton, and George Washington University Law School in DC. Just a few years later, she met and soon married a freshman member of Congress, Rep. Paul Ryan. Today, Mitt Romney introduced Ryan as his running mate, and Janna Little Ryan, a year older than Ryan, could become the Second Lady of the United States.

More: http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/meet-janna-little-ryan-who-wants-to-be-americas

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. So this implies he wasn't planning this for a while.

Not the oddly timed Saturday announcement. Not the selection of Ryan.

If he had been he'd have his talking points ready to roll. Instead they're going to let their surrogates soften the crowd on Sunday before he has to take any questions on Monday regarding this selection.

If my speculation is true, they really were in a panic. More so than I'd realized.

[Cracklin Charlie]

33. What do you think brought on the panic?

This campaign seems to have been running in panic mode ever since Mitt secured the "nomination". Either that, or the campaign staff is just hideously inept.

Is it at all customary to name the vp choice this far in advance of their convention?

I have felt for months that Ryan would be Romney's choice. Especially since Sen Reid came out with the news about Mittens' taxes. Ryan is really about the only Republican who could have a chance to get Mitt's taxes out of the headlines...no way could those other milque-toast clowns have diverted that enormous issue. And it's doubtful that Paul Ryan will be up to that job, either.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and predict that before the convention, we'll be like Cousin Vinny, saying about Paul Ryan..."I'm done with this guy". Next witness.

[sofa king]

56. I can hazard a guess.

There was a disturbance in the Force somewhere in the second half of this past week. I saw someone here mention that some Republican in the know was blabbing about the VP pick. Romney told the press he was going to make the announcement next week (surprise! another lie).

But it's a pain in the ass to go back and separate the guesses from those who sound like they know, so I'll wait for someone else to tease out who the leaker I am postulating really was.

Fox News unloaded the announcement apparently on cue at about 11 pm last night, which used to be called the "Friday night graveyard" slot. That, along with this change of television plans, suggests to me that there was enough time to choreograph an announcement within a day or a weekend, but not within a week. I think Mitt's people intentionally scheduled the convention itself to entirely avoid the Olympics, which further suggests to me that this announcement was not planned very far in advance.

The overall timing of the announcement about three weeks out from the convention, doesn't strike me as particularly unusual, though.

Okay, so here's my guess: Many different and competing entities could lay claim to a say in the choice of the VP. I think one of them forced the issue by "leaking" their own choice, and leaving Mitt to decide whether or not to try to walk that crap back like he's walked back all of his other lies, or to run with it.

He would not have had much time to decide, knowing that the leak would certainly bleed onto the front page by Sunday.

The source would have to be very powerful to make such a leak stick when every kook in the country (myself included) was pitching guesses. My suspicion is that the Kochs did it.

[underpants]

64. This - look at how spooky and canny we are - article says they have been working on this since Feb

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014191586

So on one hand we have the story of how vetted all the choices were (including YEARS of tax returns) but now we hear "Oh we just did this because we are soooo BOLD"

[louis-t]

23. No, Ryan will do all the talking from now on.

Romney made too many mistakes. Romney will get a momentary bump, but this will force scrutiny on Ryan's budget fiasco. People are not going to like what they see. Up to now, it has been sold as a cure-all. Ryan is a good salesman, but he will have to dance like Michael Jackson to sell this load of horseshit.

[elleng]

36. Sounds like a good idea to me, for them.

SHHHHH, DON'T TELL THEM!

[wordpix]

24. no doubt has to do with "one of largest tax avoidance schemes in history," the Son of Boss, & O ad:

Rachel had a segment on this. Has to do with Rmoney heading up Marriot Corp's audit committee and sheltering $70,000,000 in taxes. Court ruled against Marriott.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2012/08/10/son-of-boss-dont-blame-romney-blame-his-tax-pros/

Note: I'm including this article above because it explains what a Son of Boss scheme is, and NOT b/c I agree with writer that Rmoney is not to blame.

Rmoney needs to get his "I knew nothing" story straight about Son of Boss so he can do his Olympic contortion act with the press and win his match. Hopefully the press does its homework.

[warrior1]

29. they needed to change the subject

Hey Mitt where are you Tax returns?

[Festivito]

30. Well, that should help his ratings. /nt

[Kalidurga]

31. Cowards...

Someone needs to tell Mitt he is running for President and that he can run, but he can't hide.

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. Does this show how risky Ryan is as a choice?

If they felt confident they could sell him, they'd have announced this on a weekday, after the Olympics, and be ready with talking points on how 'marvelous' Ryan is. They'd love to be dominating the news with their spin on Ryan, through interviews.

I think they are unsure how it will all play out, so they've announced it at the start of the final weekend of the Olympics, where it won't be the only thing the news can talk about - instead, they will be able to check the reactions of the media, and of the Democrats, and then plan how to respond.

They're afraid. Very afraid.

[elleng]

34. NOT a bfd, imo; perfectly expectable.

Team message has to be sculpted.

[Ratty]

35. Isn't this the way it is for Republicans nowdays?

Shunning the liberal biased lamestream media who only want to score ratings points with their "gotcha" questions like "what do you read?" Expect lots of fair and balanced Fox and Friends interviews and maybe an appearance or two with Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

[Major Hogwash]

39. "I have nothing to say. Don't quote me on that." Haha haha!!!!

What else do you want to stop talking about, Mitt, besides your time at Bain?
Your income tax returns?
Your term as Governor of Massachusetts?
Your pick for veep candidate, Ryan?
Your position on Medicare?
Your disposition on Medicaid?
Your desire to ruin Social Security?
Your expert analysis of Obama's foreign policy?

That damn veep dartboard just doesn't work the same as the oiuja board, when it comes to answering questions does it, Big Fella?

You lost your Magic 8-ball, didn't ya?

Hoo-haw!!

[kiranon]

40. Romney wants to be King and Ryan wants to be the President.

No press interviews makes no sense. Just waiting for Romney to withdraw. How odd that he introduced his VP choice as the next President of the United States. If elected Romney would be the President in name only. An empty suit with a VP who wants to control.

[goclark]

55. what do u bet that

Mittwit will step aside "for family reasons?

[ailsagirl]

43. One would THINK they'd want to "shout it from the rooftops!"

I wish one of us had a friend in Team Romney and could clue us in. I'm dying to know!

[magical thyme]

45. hail mary pass. didn't have talking points ready in advance.

Mittens couldn't even handle the simple announcement without screwing up. They're in total panic mode, operating tactically in the moment with no plan b after plan a (referendum on economy) was a total fail.

Obama's team, on the other hand, had their first ad out within a couple hours of the announcement. Either they knew Ryan was going to be the final choice, or they had several ads in the can and ready to go, depending on the choice.

Watch for a repeat of the pounding Romney took from the starting gate. All rolling out in carefully planned sequence, for sure.

[Ilsa]

48. Isn't Gibbs running the campaign?

Whoever it is, they are doing a masterful job, including running ads on the Internet and making sure it gets prime time TV and news exposure without ever paying a dime in advertising.

[magical thyme]

51. Jim Messina is, but really the whole team is doing a masterful job

Think of Stephanie Cutter planting the felony idea and then, when they assumed she'd be thrown under the bus, she instead was put front and center to sweetly facing them down and eviscerate them on Sunday am teevee.

They've outspent Romney on advertising in swing states, but their ads have been so brilliant that the ads themselves have netted additional showing on news programs and Sunday talk shows.

They are able to outspend Romney up to the convention because rules say they can only use primary $$ until official nomination. Romney busted his budget on the primary, whereas Obama wasn't primaried. Or if he was, nobody noticed.

[Ilsa]

52. Excellent explanation. Many thanks. Learned slot. nt

[and-justice-for-all]

49. They know they are going to lose...

which is their only option...and I am quite happy with that result.

[madrchsod]

53. amateur hour....

[gkhouston]

54. Probably hoping that if he waits a bit, questions will be about Ryan instead of son of BOSS. n/t

[davidpdx]

57. So he's going back to the "I'm not talking to the media" strategy

How did that work out for you last time Mitt?

[tavalon]

58. uh oh,

wonder if they are considering a retroactive abortion?

[dixvilleninotchka]

62. WTF? This is NOT how to run a presidential campaign...

Ok, so are we to infer that this douchebag is simply NOT running for president in any serious way? I mean, we've already figured out that he's not going to beat the President. He's added Ryan to the ticket which shuts up some of the Tea Baggers, brings out a few more voters in November who otherwise would have stayed home, and tries to set Ryan up for 2016.

But, you know, you take advantage of the press coverage when you name a VP. You get your message out. You look good on TV and bring your "ideas" to the people with a huge blast of free media. You take a bump in the polls and try to leverage it as much as possible.

Has Romney already decided not to take this run for president seriously? It's as if he's given up. I mean, that's fine with me, but we did have a few more things on the dance card to take care of before we wrap it up in November.

[underpants]

63. Exactly - you get to frame the VP all weekend long

WTF ARE they doing???

[sofa king]

66. I think the Kochs stuck it on him.

I don't think Mitt had actually decided yet. The Dems seem to have traced Ryan's private plane on Friday night and they certainly would have tried to fizzle the pick by tipping it early. But they would have leaked to a source Republicans can't stand (which fucks with the minds of right wingers when an authority they don't trust tells them an unavoidable truth). They wouldn't have given it to Fox News.

I think it was the Kochs who decided to pull an end-run around all the other people who think they own Mitt and staged the Fox unveiling at 11 on Friday--the worst announcement time and day outside of 2am on a weeknight. Then they presented Mitt with the fait accompli and left him to decide whether or not to run on the false start or try to lie his way out of it... again.

[underpants]

69. Push-pull

what you posted is the most likely - the other side is that Mitt knew that Ryan would keep Koch/Adelson money pouring in