Despite President Obama’s reelection nearly a month ago, MSNBC has continued to attack Mitt Romney and his family every chance it gets, with the latest being a vicious critique of Ann Romney on the December 3 The Last Word w/ Lawrence O’Donnell. Mr. O’Donnell brought on Washington Post writers Jonathan Capehart and Philip Rucker to comment on recent articles they penned on the Romneys.
Mr. O’Donnell started the segment by gleefully claiming that, “They [friends of Ann Romney] said she has been crying in private and trying to get back to riding her horses." "[G]iven the way you saw the character of Ann Romney unfold during the course of the campaign, what’s your reaction to that?” O'Donnell asked Capehart, a liberal columnist. [See video below page break. MP3 audio here.]
The segment continud with Mr. Capehart describing the “juicy tidbits” in rucker's story, specifically what Capehart perceived to be the presumptiveness the Romneys had towards their chances of winning the election. Capehart argued that comments made by Mrs. Romney throughout the campaign presented a mindset of “someone who thinks that they are sort of owed sitting in the White House, as opposed to earning their way into the White House.”
After discussing the differing pre-election polls with reporter Philip Rucker, O’Donnell once again felt the need to bring up Ann Romney’s supposed crying following the election. “What, then, does that kind of mind do in this situation? I mean, I kind of -- I guess I kind of get the crying. The world makes no sense,” O'Donnell offered, doing his best armchair psychiatrist bit.
O’Donnell’s snarky comments about Mrs. Romney following the election allowed Capehart to once again smear the Romneys:
The word I was looking for, Lawrence is entitled. And that’s -- I think that’s the mindset coming from, you know, the Romney’s and particularly going back to that paragraph in Philip’s story about Ann Romney, the sense of entitlement that the White House is supposed to be theirs, that it’s their turn, it’s Mitt’s time, as opposed to what the country has to say about the matter.
It’s been nearly a month since Election Day, and yet O’Donnell continues to show a vicious determination to attack the Romneys at every opportunity, despite the fact that his candidate, President Obama won reelection.
In 2004, following John Kerry's loss, a bitter Lawrence O'Donnell as ungracious in defeat, suggesting liberals should mount a push for secession. Eight years and two presidential wins later, O'Donnell chooses to remain ungracious in victory.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
The Last Word w/ Lawrence O’Donnell
December 3, 2012
10:32 p.m. EDT
LAWRENCE O`DONNELL: Philip [Rucker], your piece says today, "by all accounts, the past month has been most difficult on Romney’s wife Ann, who friends said believed up until the end that ascending to the White House was their destiny. They said she has been crying in private and trying to get back to riding her horses." Jonathan [Capehart], given the way you saw the character of Ann Romney unfold during the course of the campaign, what’s your reaction to that?
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, I wrote about this today. That paragraph was all -- of the juicy tidbits in Philip’s story -- and great work Philip, on your story. But that was the one that leapt out at me, because it struck up a familiar tone. We’ve heard that same tone, this one of -- one of presumptiveness, one of -- I can’t think of the word right now. But where -- there are three instances that people will point to where that paragraph, we saw it come before. One was when she had the interview with the Iowa radio station where she said to Republicans complaining about her husband -- remember she said, stop it, this is hard. You get in the ring if you think it’s so easy, and America should be so lucky to have someone like her husband Mitt to run the country. There was the interview with Diane Sawyer where -- when she was asked, what would you say to President Obama and Michelle Obama, and she concluded her remarks by saying -- well, first she said, it’s Mitt’s time and then ends her remarks by saying, it’s our turn. You know, these are -- that belies a mind set of someone who thinks that they are sort of owed sitting in the White House, as opposed to earning their way into the White House.
O`DONNELL: Philip Rucker, please explain to me and the nation how the Romney’s could have been convinced, convinced to a certainty that Mitt Romney was going to win this election. I mean, even if all of the polls showed him in that position, which they didn’t, but even if they did, the votes still have to be cast. There is still some suspense in election night.
PHILIP RUCKER: Well, you know, there was a feeling with the candidate and with his wife Ann throughout the campaign this was Mitt’s moment. This was -- you know, he was the guy who could fix the economy and that the country needed him and that there was no way America would reelect President Obama, that this was the year for Mitt Romney to win. And so they believed that all the way to the end. And in the last week of the campaign -- and I was out on the road with him -- he had these huge crowds at different events. And in fact on Election Day, he did a stop in Pittsburgh to go visit his election headquarters there. And he saw a bunch of people up on a parking ramp right at the airport. They hadn’t announced the arrival at the airport. And people just showed up. And Romney’s friends said that he and people around him took it as an omen. They thought that was a sign that he was going to win. And indeed, they thought all the way up until the networks called the race on election night that he would be the winner.
O`DONNELL: So Jonathan, what, then, does that kind of mind do in this situation? I mean, I kind of -- I guess I kind of get the crying. The world makes no sense.
CAPEHART: Right. Well, I mean the world makes no sense when you live in this bubble where -- just imagine, remember what was happening over at Fox News on election night, how they couldn’t believe what the rest of the country saw happening and saw happening for weeks, if not months. This echo chamber that they live in that they are going to win, that their ideas are right, that they are the ones who should be leading the country, and the country said otherwise. And the word I was looking for, Lawrence is entitled. And that’s -- I think that’s the mindset coming from, you know, the Romney’s and particularly going back to that paragraph in Philip’s story about Ann Romney, the sense of entitlement that the White House is supposed to be theirs, that it’s their turn, it’s Mitt’s time, as opposed to what the country has to say about the matter.
