On MSNBC's Ed Show on Monday night, Ed Schultz attacked Mitt Romney for failing to disagree emphatically with a voter who said Obama should be tried for treason. "For all his faults, at least John McCain [in 2008] had the guts to talk down the crazy. Four years later, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party doesn't have the character or leadership skills to correct conspiracy theories on the road at an event? Romney didn't address the treason accusation at an event until a reporter grilled him about it."
Guess who didn't have the "character or leadership skills" to correct his supporters when they made crazy talk about "treason" in the last presidential election? That would be Barack Obama. Which supporters? You can start with...Keith Olbermann, occupying Ed Schultz's current spot on MSNBC. Check out Olbermann on April 25, 2008, for example, when the treason came from Team Clinton, which was supposedly going to undermine Obama in the fall:
OLBERMANN: Surely, the specifics of the racial aspect to this are being overplayed, aren’t they? I mean, if any Democrat were to deliberately try to undermine another Democrat`s chances at winning in November, wouldn’t that just be regardless of color, gender, or anything else, would not that not be political treason or something like it?
REP. JIM CLYBURN: That’s absolutely correct. No question about that.
Of course, Krazy Keith also unleashed this attack on Team Bush. Take Valentine's Day, 2008, on Bush's promise to veto any extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that did not grant immunity to the telecom companies:
OLBERMANN: Because if there were, sir, now that you have vetoed an extension of this eavesdropping, if some terrorist attack were to follow, you would not merely be guilty of siding with the terrorists. You would not merely be guilty of prioritizing the telecoms over the people. You would not merely be guilty of stupidity. You would not merely be guilty of treason, sir. You would be personally, and eternally, responsible.
And if there is one thing we know about you, Mr. Bush, one thing that you have proved time and time again, it is that you are never responsible.
But Schultz in 2012 just regurgitates Obama talking points like he was that actress Alicia Silverstone feeding her baby:
The Obama campaign responded with this statement, "Time after time, in this campaign, Mitt Romney has had the opportunity to show that he has the fortitude to stand up to hateful and over-the-line rhetoric. And time after time, he has failed to do so. If this is the leadership he has shown on the campaign trial, what can the American people expect of him as commander-in-chief?"
You know, now, this is the key point. Today's event displayed Mitt Romney`s weak leadership skills. It's become a pattern. Last week, Romney buckled to the Christian right getting rid of a top foreign advisor because he was gay. And a few months ago, he was all about Ted Nugent until he said crazy stuff. And now, he's allowed an accusation of treason to slide by. This is about character.
What really made Schultz's opposition to "crazy talk" amusing was his first guest to address the "treason" talk on Monday: Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who just recently was describing the House Speaker and the House Majority Leader as "demons." Jane Wagner came to her defense.
Waters praised Schultz for his attack: "Well, Ed, you nailed him again. He has been consistent in lack of being grounded in anything."
