Shorter Politico: Yes, Mitt's 'Fire People' Comment Being Taken Out of Context, But Who Cares?!

January 9th, 2012 3:14 PM

Sure, the "full context" of Mitt Romney's comments on liking "being able to fire people who provide services to me" is pretty "benign," Politico's Alexander Burns noted in a Burns & Haberman blog post this morning entitled "Mitt drops the f-bomb," but, "it's hardly careful language from a candidate under fire for participating in large-scale layoffs."

Romney's comment came at a January 9 Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Nashua, N.H., where "He was referring, POLITICO's Reid Epstein says, to being able to hold service providers accountable as an employer."

More specifically, Romney was talking about how he wants to change health care laws so that its easier for individuals to buy insurance without being chained to their employer's preferred health insurance provider.

But context be damned, apparently.

It was "an infelicitous turn of phrase" that President Obama's campaign spokesman already tweeted about, Burns noted, before adding an update noting that "The DNC has already posted video of the remarks online here."