First, we have a video from yesterday where Romney walks up behind Carl Cameron while he’s on air for an impromptu one minute interview. Carl’s surprise is enjoyable to watch, as is Mitt’s calm and pleasant demeanor. He seems to realize that he’s stepping in unannounced, so he doesn’t try to take over the microphone and push campaign slogans. He acknowledges that there will be many candidates at the debate tonight, that there will be many people there who want to hear from all of the candidates… and then he politely excuses himself.
I’d put this video in the “instant classic” category:
Second, we have a portion of Romney at the Iowa State Fair on the soapbox dealing with some hecklers very near the stage. You’ll notice the video has the Think Progress logo on it, and the Dems seem to love it, but for my part I think Romney handled them rather well, and number of tweeters live on location seemed to thing so as well.
The man that confronts Romney on social security has a very legitimate concern, but his outrage is awfully misguided. He’s obviously been drinking deeply from the liberal talking points fountain that tells him that GOP are going to slash SS and Medicare payments to seniors – such is just not the case. But that doesn’t stop dems from using it as a fear tactic. Romney makes the point that we need to address the promises that we are making to young people now in regards to Social Security, that something needs to change before they come to retirement age. IF not, there will be no money for anyone. It’s that simple.
UPDATE by Jayde- The heckling group has been identified as a liberal think tank calling themselves ‘Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement’. C-Span has additional video here. This is a defining moment for Romney.
UPDATE 2 by Nate – Gail Gitcho posted to twitter this great photo of Mitt Romney vs. the Lib Heckler (click on pic to enlarge):
It's being called the 'Mitt Hit' game-changer for Governor Romney. He forcefully addressed hecklers today while speaking at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, IA. August 11, 2011
Mike Huckabee went out of his way to praise Mitt Romney for this event which was great to see. Also, check out a little extra reading to explain why the liberals making a big deal about Gov. Romney’s statement on corporations, Why Romney’s right that ‘companies are people’.
~Nate G.
Nate owns and manages a small souvenir manufacturing business. He and his wife of 12 years have 2 children. Nate has been blogging for Mitt Romney since late 2006 and is co-founder and editor of MittRomneyCentral.com.
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Great job by Mitt as usual.
The C-Span video is a good supplement to the first. I think we are seeing the beginnings of the liberal attempt to “kill” Romney (assuming these people really are from a liberal think tank). What they haven’t considered is that — according to my observations since the last election — one of Romney’s uncommon attributes is that he doesn’t seem to easily get angry, personal, and loose control! He gets passionate and animated and even raises his voice but even in the middle of the shouting he was very appropriate as to how he handled the crowd. I loved: “Do you you have anything else to say” and the guy answers “well (sounding surprised at the invitation) I want to hear what you have to say.” The same was seen last cycle when after a long hard fight he immediately endorsed John McCain — no personal animosity. All, I can say is these baiting tactics are an attempt to make a candidate look petty and snippy and loose control (“the thing about wrestling with a pig is that you both get dirty and the pig enjoys it”). But they only work on people who can be loose cannons. If there is anything Romney is not is a loose cannon. The opposition will instead be portrayed as impolite, crazy, foaming at the mouth liberals who lack civility.