While ignoring breaking news in the Obama administration's Libya fiasco
on Thursday night, CNN's Piers Morgan dumped on the Romney campaign for
a good portion of his show, saying Mitt is "in a hell of a lot of
trouble."
Morgan cited four polls in Virginia showing "Obama comfortably ahead,"
even though one of the polls was actually a tie and another had Obama
leading within the margin of error. "Your guy's in a hell of a lot of
trouble, isn't he?" Morgan asked GOP pollster Kristen Soltis.
"[I]t seems that ever since the convention, we have seen Obama's fortunes get better and Mitt Romney's get worse," sounded Morgan, who also soured on the Paul Ryan VP pick. He added that "there has been a sense, a rising sense that the appointment of Paul Ryan as the VP pick has turned out to be a big mistake," before citing the New York Times's liberal Nate Silver, who used to write for the Daily Kos, as a source.
[Video below. Audio here [1].]
Meanwhile, Morgan's colleague Anderson Cooper led his show with
important breaking news from Libya that more staffers were being
evacuated from the Tripoli embassy. Cooper also investigated the Obama
administration's knowledge of the attack and the subsequent
investigations that had hit snags.
Morgan made no mention of Libya while Cooper was "keeping the Obama
administration honest." Yet Morgan ran two segments spouting liberal
talking points about how the Romney campaign is in a "hell of a lot of
trouble."
A transcript of the segments, which aired on Piers Morgan Tonight on September 28 at 9:25 p.m. EDT, is as follows:
PIERS MORGAN: Kristen, let me start with you. Your guy's in a hell of a
lot of trouble, isn't he? I'm looking at some polls here, it doesn't
matter who you believe, Suffolk University, FOX News, Quinnipiac/New
York Times/CBS, NBC News/Wall Street Journal, all of them in Virginia,
amongst likely voters have Obama comfortably ahead. This is – this is a
big problem for Mitt Romney, isn't it?
KRISTEN SOLTIS, Republican pollster: I don't think it's quite as big a
problem as you've made it out to be. There was a poll that Suffolk
University had out just tonight that had Obama up by two. And so it is
true that you've got Obama up in swing states like Virginia by small
margins. But there's become this narrative that's really developed over
the last week that the race is starting to get away from Governor Romney
that I think is not really founded in necessarily good data.
(...)
MORGAN: Well, Charles Blow, I mean, I think one of the reasons people
are believing this momentum is that every poll now appears to be
widening. I mean that may be an exaggeration. I'm sure we can find one
or two which remain the same, but it seems that ever since the
convention, we have seen Obama's fortunes get better and Mitt Romney's
get worse. And you've got to say, as the tension builds to the first
debate, this is make-or-break week, isn't it, for Mitt Romney?
(...)
MORGAN: Yes, but, Kristen Soltis, I mean, it may be coincidence, but
since that 47 percent story broke, it was so damaging to Mitt Romney
that you just get a sense now that he's got to do something pretty
impactive and powerful to get that off the agenda, because the one area
that we all believed he had the advantage over Barack Obama was the
economy. Suddenly in one fell swoop, you have a guy who has basically
written off half the country as a bunch of scrounging victims. And that
is not good.
(...)
MORGAN: Charles Blow, there has been a sense, a rising sense that the
appointment of Paul Ryan as the VP pick has turned out to be a big
mistake, that he should have chosen – I had Nate Silver on last night
who had all these wonderful facts and figures. But he basically said
look, had he gone for Marco Rubio or somebody and gone for the Latino
vote, at least that would have been a demographic he could have pulled
in he didn't otherwise have.
With Paul Ryan, it just doesn't seem to be working. He brought him in
to win the battle over the economy argument. And ever since that
happened, that appointment happened, it's gone the other way on the
economy. He's been losing that argument. What do you think of that? Was
Paul Ryan, with hindsight, the wrong choice?
(...)
(Video Clip)
(Political Ad)
MITT ROMNEY: There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the
President no matter what, who are dependent upon government, who believe
that they are victims, who believe the government has the
responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to health
care, to food, to housing, to you name it. And they will vote for this
President no matter what.
(End Video Clip)
MORGAN: President Obama's new television attack ad due to air in seven
key battleground states focusing on Romney's 47 percent comment. Back
with me now, my political all-stars, Charles Blow and Kristen Soltis.
Kristen, again, this is a problem, isn't it, for Mitt Romney, because
that 47 percent thing is now going to be a huge stick to beat him over
the head with for the next 40 days. Also quite interestingly, I thought
today, you've got a new video released by the liberal-leaning website
Mother Jones, which shows Romney as Bain CEO. Take a look at this. Then I
will come back to you.
(Video Clip)
ROMNEY: Bain Capital is an investment partnership which was formed to
invest in startup companies and ongoing companies, then to take an
active hand in managing them, and hopefully, five to eight years later,
to harvest them at a significant profit.
(End Video Clip)
MORGAN: Now Mitt Romney's campaign had this to say about this video,
"In addition to starting up new businesses, Mitt Romney helped build
Bain Capital by turning around broken companies, creating and saving
thousands of jobs. The problem today is President Obama hasn't been able
to turn around the economy in the same way."
Here's the problem for Mitt Romney, though, Kristen, which is that
these were two areas, really, the economy and his record at Bain, that
were supposed to be the strong points for the Romney campaign. And
they're now being used as his vulnerabilities, weak points. And unless
he can turn this around – you can't blame the Obama campaign. They are
ramping this up now, and attacking him on the very things he thought
that he was going to win on.
(...)
MORGAN: The problem for him is it plays to – and Kristen, I'd like to
come back to you on this – it plays to this sense there's always been
about Mitt Romney that he's too rich, too detached. With that comes a
kind of arrogance and disconnect from the average American. These two
things, his Bain record and the taxes issue and the 47 percent, it all
just morphs into a picture that he's just not one of them.