At least Romney didn’t shoot Lassie

A Mitt Romney campaign comment was edited and used out of context. Again.

We'd already heard that Romney likes to fire people. Now, we're told, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination doesn't care about poor people.

News flash! Mitt Romney enjoys firing the poor!

Not true, of course. But life isn't fair, and politics is downright rotten. Romney managed to string together a few words, on two separate occasions in less than a month, that will help his enemies build on the perception that the former Massachusetts governor is a ruthless, silver-spoon elitist who can't possibly relate to the struggles of middle America.

But it could be worse for Romney. He could be Henry Buckwell.

The flak Romney is taking reminds me of a classic "Saturday Night Live" skit from 1996. In it, host Alec Baldwin plays Buckwell, a promising, well-intentioned candidate for governor of a nameless state who sees his campaign implode when the media ignore context and turn his honest mistakes into public relations disasters. (Just Google "Saturday Night Live Buckwell's Follies" to find a link to the NBC video or a transcript. Be prepared to laugh until your stomach hurts.)

It all starts when candidate Buckwell, while lying in bed at home one night, hears what sounds like a burglar downstairs and decides to investigate, gun in hand. Buckwell fires at a figure in the dark, and when the lights come on, he's horrified to see a dead dog on his couch. It turns out that none other than Lassie was trying to save him and his family from carbon monoxide poisoning. Buckwell had killed Lassie in a horrible misunderstanding.

Spinning newspaper headlines follow: "Buckwell Kills Lassie." "Lassie Killer to Debate Governor Tonight."

At the debate, angry, booing hecklers won't let Buckwell finish a sentence. "Listen! Please, listen! Listen! It was a mistake, all right! Have a little understanding!" he pleads. He becomes so flustered, he doesn't realize a woman is bringing forward a baby for him to kiss. Thinking the woman is another heckler, Buckwell spins and screams an obscenity at the woman just as she is lifting the child for a smooch. Oops.

Spinning newspaper headlines follow: "Lassie Killer Candidate Curses Out Baby." "First Dogs, Now Babies." "Lassie Killer/Baby Curser to Speak Tonight."

At his next speech, Buckwell is egged by an angry mob. He stumbles backward, reaching for anything to cover himself and wipe the splattered eggs from his suit, and he grabs hold of ... the American flag. Oops.

Spinning newspaper headlines follow: "Lassie Assassin and Baby Slanderer Cleans Self with Old Glory and Offers Program to Lower Unemployment."

"Ladies and gentlemen of this great state," Buckwell says at a subsequent address, "I come before you a humble man, who hopes only to serve other people. And, yes, I've stumbled. I've shot Lassie. I've cursed at an infant. And, yes, I've wiped my ass with the American flag! But don't let that define me!"

But headlines have a funny way of defining candidates. And last week, following his monster win in Florida's primary, the headlines said, "Romney: 'I'm not concerned about poor.' "

In a Wednesday interview with CNN, Romney was pointing out that a safety net exists for the poor -- Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers and other forms of aid -- and that he's most concerned with the suffering of the increasingly jobless middle class. His exact remarks: "I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I'm not concerned about the very poor. There's a safety net there, and if it needs repair, I'll fix it. I'm not concerned about the very rich. They're doing just fine. I'm concerned about the heart of America, the 95 percent of Americans who are right now struggling."

Romney has made similar remarks throughout the campaign, including during an October meeting with the Review-Journal's editorial board. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party's outrage machine revved into high gear, turning the comment into a DNC ad and filling journalists' email accounts with zinger-laden responses. The country's last remaining editorial cartoonists couldn't draw it up fast enough. It was a bigger national story than Nevada's upcoming presidential caucus.

No context, of course. Romney said he'd repair any holes in the safety net. For heaven's sake, experts are howling that there's an obesity epidemic among the poor! Americans need jobs, not more welfare benefits that keep them poor.

Remember that in January, Romney's statement about the importance of competition and consumer choice in health care was condensed by the media and Romney's rivals to one line: "I like to fire people." His exact remarks: "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know, if someone doesn't give me a good service that I need, I want to say, 'I'm going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.' ... I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them."

A fine reminder that markets encourage accountability. But Romney's use of the first person in both remarks made it especially easy for others to twist his words. Democrats have nothing to run on this year but a "mean Republicans stink" message, and Romney's comments will help them in that regard. Come November, however, voters also might pay attention to the current administration's four years of domestic policy failures.

Considering Romney had been the equivalent of Tom Brady for most of the past year -- lots of methodical scoring drives, no interceptions -- he was bound to take a sack at some point. Everyone does. Barack Obama tripped up at an Iowa farm in 2007: "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" At the time, Iowa had no Whole Foods stores. Arugula? Obama learned from a mistake that made him look elitist and foolishly out of touch. He became more disciplined on the stump. He recovered.

On Thursday, Romney finally backtracked to control the damage before Nevada's Saturday caucus, which he was expected to win in a landslide. He said he misspoke in his comments about the poor -- even though he didn't.

But it could have been worse for Romney. He could have shot Lassie.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.