SALON

Monday, May 7, 2012 8:06 PM UTC

Romney’s moment of cowardice

He can't even muster the courage to correct a woman who says the president should be "tried for treason"

By

Topics: Mitt Romney, 2012 Elections,

Romney's moment of cowardice

In hindsight, the last big moment of integrity for the Republican Party came when Sen. John McCain challenged an older white woman who called Barack Obama an “Arab” at an October 2008 campaign event. “No ma’am,” he told her wearily. “He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].”

Since then, Republicans from Sarah Palin to John Boehner to Rick Santorum have had chances to slap down party members’ false and ugly allegations about the president, from his birthplace to his religion to his loyalty to the U.S., and they all failed. Mitt Romney had his moment Monday, when a woman at a town hall event said Obama should be “tried for treason,” and he failed too.

The moment seemed tailor-made for Romney to shake his Etch-A-Sketch and put the right-wing pandering of the primary season behind him. A woman in the crowd raised her hand and asked:

“We have a president right now that is operating outside the structure of our Constitution. And I want to know — yeah, I do agree he should be tried for treason — but I want to know what you would be able to do to restore balance between the three branches of government and what you are going to be able to do to restore our Constitution in this country.”

Romney missed the chance for a McCain moment, simply addressing the woman’s question and ignoring her charge of treason against the president.

“Well, as I’m sure you do, I happen to believe the Constitution was not just brilliant but probably inspired. I happen to believe the same thing about the Declaration of Independence,” he said, to applause. “I would respect the different branches of government if I am fortunate enough to become president.”

After the rally, in response to questions from CNN, Romney replied, sounding whiny: “I don’t correct all of the questions that get asked of me. Obviously I don’t agree that he should be tried.”

Obviously? Nothing is obvious about Romney’s beliefs. He lives in fear that the GOP base will reject him like a bad organ donation. In fact, Romney’s answer was almost identical to what Rick Santorum said after an audience member called Obama a Muslim: “It’s not my responsibility, as a candidate, to correct everybody who makes a statement that I disagree with.” Still going for the Santorum vote, Mitt?

I’ve said before that John McCain gets way too much Beltway credit for political courage. But credit where it’s due – he did the right thing in October 2008, and Romney did the wrong thing on Monday. There’s no better symbol of the GOP’s slide over the last four years than its presumptive nominee’s pathetic pandering.

Joan Walsh

Joan Walsh is Salon's editor at large and the author of "What's the Matter With White People: Finding Our Way in the Next America." More Joan Walsh.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 159 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations