King Romney comes first

King Romney comes first

by digby

Everybody’s going to have to sacrifice for Mitt Romney.(Well, rich people won’t have to sacrifice any money, but that goes without saying.)

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to tone down his statements heralding improvements in the state’s economy because they clash with the presumptive Republican nominee’s message that the nation is suffering under President Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Scott, a Republican, was asked to say that the state’s jobless rate could improve faster under a Romney presidency, according to the people, who asked not to be named.

What’s unfolding in Florida highlights a dilemma for the Romney campaign: how to allow Republican governors to take credit for economic improvements in their states while faulting Obama’s stewardship of the national economy. Republican governors in Ohio, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin also have highlighted improving economies.

Scott should follow the advice of the Romney campaign and it won’t undermine his own message, said Mac Stipanovich, a political strategist and lobbyist in Florida.
“This is one of those situations where you could have it both ways and there’s enough truth in it that it would resonate,” Stipanovich said. “It would be better if everybody was singing from the same hymnal.”

It’s been obvious for quite some time that the Romney campaign was counting on a bad economy to push them over the finish line first. But I would guess that other powerful members of the party realized they would have to take a bullet in order for him to make the claim.

On the other hand, nobody should be surprised by all this. Rush Limbaugh said it up front immediately after the GOP lost big in 2008: they wanted President Obama to fail. And they did everything in their power to make that happen. But it was bound to cause trouble for GOP high office holders who would run for re-election alongside of him. After all, they’re supposed to perform too.

Still, it takes a lot of nerve to tell someone to downplay their own “accomplishments” for the good of their leader. But that’s how aristocracies roll, and the GOP operates on that model.

*I should point out that the Democratic version isn’t much better. They prefer a Lord of the Flies organizing principle.

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