CBS Concedes: Romney Better Push Libya Because the Press Won't 'Make the Case for Him'
CBS News political director John Dickerson on Sunday conceded the
obvious, advising Mitt Romney to make Libya an issue in the campaign
because the media "isn't necessarily going to make that case for him."
Dickerson's admission proved true on CBS's Face the Nation, as well as NBC's Meet the Press and ABC's This Week.
In one of the few mentions of Libya on CBS, Dickerson marveled,
"...This administration first thought this uprising in Libya
was...something that bubbled up from the ground. Well, now they are
calling it a terrorist attack."
This led him to suggest, "These are points...that Mitt Romney need[s] to make because he knows the press isn't necessarily going to make that case for him." [MP3 audio here.]
On ABC's This Week, former Clinton operative George
Stephanopoulos ignored Libya and Barack Obama's handling of it. Instead,
he focused almost entirely on the secret video of Romney talking about
the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay taxes.
The former Clinton operative gloated, "With just over six weeks to go,
it is safe to say that Mitt Romney can't afford another one like his
last."
To Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus,
Stephanopoulos promised, "Voters are going to be hearing about that
leaked video every single day."
Over on Meet the Press, the David Gregory focused on Romney's "stumbles" instead of foreign policy gaffes by the President.
A transcript of Dickerson's September 23 comments on Face the Nation can be found below:
JOHN DICKERSON: Governor Romney jumped in the middle of the violence in the Middle East and he broke a little bit of a tradition by inserting himself. They he disappeared on the issue. We've since learned that this administration first thought this uprising in Libya was just a kind of– something that bubbled up from the ground. Well, now they are calling it a terrorist attack. What went wrong there? What did you get wrong in the first place? Why weren't you securing the embassy the way you should have been?
These are points that a Republican could make that Mitt Romney need to make because he knows the press isn't necessarily going to make that case for him. He can't make it because he was the one who jumped in and said hey this is a very serious issue. But instead he hasn't really come back to it.
