Free stuff, secret stuff

I had hoped to ignore the fallout over Mitt Romney's speech to the NAACP, because acquiring footage of Mitt being booed by blacks was, quite obviously, his purpose in giving the speech. But Matt Taibbi makes a superb point. Romney cracked that people who expect "free stuff" should vote for the other guy. To which Taibbi responds:

As far as free lunches go, we of course just witnessed the biggest government handout in history, one that Romney himself endorsed. Four and a half trillion dollars in bailout money already disbursed, trillions more still at risk in guarantees and loans, sixteen trillion dollars in emergency lending from the Federal Reserve, two trillion in quantitative easing, etc. etc. All of this money went to Romney’s pals in the Wall Street banks that for years helped Romney take over companies with mountains of borrowed cash. Now, after these banks crashed, executives at those same firms used those public funds to pay themselves massive salaries, which is exactly the opposite of “helping those who need help,” if you’re keeping score.

Other politicians have made racist appeals before, but few have done so in such a calculated, passion-free fashion:

He’s like a teenager who stays up all night thinking of a way to impress the prom queen, and what he comes up with is kicking a kid in a wheelchair.

By the way...

Romney refuses to offer more than two years of his tax returns. His attempts to turn the controversy around on Obama seem strident and unconvincing. The guy really is acting like he has something serious to hide.

The attacks are "beneath the dignity of the president and his campaign," Romney told ABC News, adding they reflected "Chicago-style politics at its worst."

Obama had promised a different approach when he ran last time, Romney said.

The former Massachusetts governor said a report had revealed the Obama campaign had "a strategy of trying to 'kill Romney,' and that's what they are trying to do. He's sure as heck got to say sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team. It's very disappointing on his part."

More:

“It’s demeaning. It’s disgusting,” Romney insisted at one point in the interview.

“Is that what’s really expected from the campaign of the sitting president of the United States,” Romney asked. “There’s no question but that his campaign is putting out information which is false and deceptive and dishonest. And they know it.”

"If you're defending, you're losing." Mitt was dumb enough to repeat those very words in a recent interview, a slip which indicates that his handlers have permanently imprinted that directive in his consciousness. But that maxim, like all political maxims, cannot be applied mindlessly.

You're also losing if you look desperate. And you look desperate if you accuse your opponent of dishonesty while refusing to provide documentation that could prove your point.