Give yourself an assignment. Watch in its entirety, compliments of Mother Jones, the video of Mitt Romney doing his Q&A with fat-cat Republicans last May in Florida. Also, read the transcript.
Why? Because reality is a good thing. And after an evening of watching MSNBC dangle Romney, as it were, from a pair of tweezers and contemplate him as some sort of plutocratic fecal matter (eventually I had to change the channel), I felt I owed him what he said we all owed him—context.
Context doesn’t do Romney any big favors, but it doesn’t make matters even worse. We find Romney at what is probably his best—joking and bantering in company he’s at ease with. If anyone here—including Romney—holds an opinion that would go against the grain of the majority, it goes unsaid. I’ve been at the occasional meet-and-greet for a liberal candidate and those are no different: there’s a premise holding sway that the times are perilous and a crusade is necessary and we are the enlightened few being asked to rally to the colors. It’s rude to question anything about this premise.