No one really expects Mitt Romney to win Massachusetts, but two new polls show him getting crushed in the state he once served as governor.

A Western New England University poll finds that President Obama is now ahead of Romney, 60% to 38%, among likely voters.

A Suffolk University poll shows Obama leading by a 64% to 31% margin.

First Read: “All campaigns have their ups and downs, but the last three weeks for Mitt Romney have been about as brutal as we can remember for any presidential candidate, especially this close to the election. First, the biggest speech of Romney’s life got overshadowed by the Clint Eastwood stunt. Then came President Obama’s significant bounce in the polls after the two political conventions. After that, Romney found himself on the defensive for his reaction to embassy attacks in Egypt and Libya. Next, Politico reported about infighting and disorganization inside the Romney campaign. Finally, all of these events were capped off yesterday by the surreptitiously recorded video of Romney…”

“What is so potentially deadly about this video is the timing, because it comes as the Romney campaign was already viewed to be behind and in crisis. Back in late July, we wrote that the presidential contest had entered halftime with Obama leading, 14-13. Now after the 3rd Quarter (the Ryan pick, the conventions, and post-convention period), Obama has scored two uncontested touchdowns, bringing it to 28-13. And now we head to the 4th Quarter (the debates).”

The Note: “No matter what Mitt Romney wanted this week to be about, it’s clear that it’s going to be about one thing: A campaign that is off message and in disarray.”

Jonathan Chait says the hidden camera video that went viral yesterday exposes Mitt Romney “as a far more sinister character than I had imagined. Here is the sneering plutocrat, fully in thrall to a series of pernicious myths that are at the heart of the mania that has seized his party. He believes that market incomes in the United States are a perfect reflection of merit. Far from seeing his own privileged upbringing as the private-school educated son of an auto executive-turned-governor as an obvious refutation of that belief, Romney cites his own life, preposterously, as a confirmation of it…”

“The revelations in this video come to me as a genuine shock. I have never hated Romney. I presumed his ideological makeover since he set out to run for president was largely phony, even if he was now committed to carry through with it, and to whatever extent he’d come to believe his own lines, he was oblivious or naïve about the damage he would inflict upon the poor, sick, and vulnerable. It seems unavoidable now to conclude that Romney’s embrace of Paul Ryanism is born of actual contempt for the looters and moochers, a class war on behalf of his own class.”

Alex Roarty: “Stories about campaign meltdowns are common for political operations with eroding poll numbers. But they are more a symptom of a struggling campaign than a cause of the struggles. The real danger for Romney is that the squabbles and missteps are now center stage and conveying the impression of a campaign that is flailing as it tries to oust an incumbent president.”

Mother Jones drops another segment of the hidden camera video shot at a Mitt Romney fundraiser in May which shows the GOP presidential candidate saying he believes peace in the Middle East is not possible and a Palestinian state is not feasible.

Said Romney: “I’m torn by two perspectives in this regard. One is the one which I’ve had for some time, which is that the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish… All right, we have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live
with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately,
somehow, something will happen and resolve it…”

“On the other hand, I got a call from a former secretary of state. I won’t mention which one it was, but this individual said to me, you know, I think there’s a prospect for a settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis after the Palestinian elections. I said, ‘Really?’ And, you know, his answer was, ‘Yes, I think there’s some prospect.’ And I didn’t delve into it.”

He added: “The idea of pushing on the Israelis to give something up to get the Palestinians to act is the worst idea in the world.”

[Read more…]

In a very brief and hastily called news conference late last night, Mitt Romney acknowledged having made the remarks captured in a hidden camera video that 47% of Americans are dependent on government, saying it was “not elegantly stated,” but he stood by the substance of the remarks.

Said Romney: “But it’s a message which I’m going to carry and continue to carry which
is, look, the president approach is attractive to people who aren’t not
paying taxes because frankly my discussion about lowering taxes isn’t as
attractive to them and therefore I’m not likely to draw them in to my
campaign as effectively as those who are in the middle.”

David Brooks lacerates Mitt Romney for comments made on a hidden video that show he “doesn’t know much about the political culture” and “has lost any sense of the social compact.”

“Personally, I think he’s a kind, decent man who says stupid things because he is pretending to be something he is not — some sort of cartoonish government-hater. But it scarcely matters. He’s running a depressingly inept presidential campaign. Mr. Romney, your entitlement reform ideas are essential, but when will the incompetence stop?”

A Suffolk University/WHDH-TV poll in Massachusetts has found Elizabeth Warren (D) pulling ahead of Sen. Scott Brown (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 44%.

It’s the third poll in three days that shows a momentum shift towards Warren ahead of their first debate on Thursday.

Said pollster David Paleologos: “The Democratic National Convention appears to have connected the dots for some voters in Massachusetts. They’ve linked Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, and congressional candidate Joseph Kennedy, whose district includes southeastern Massachusetts. Warren benefitted not only from her own speech, but from the oratory of others, both inside and outside of Massachusetts.”

“It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”

— Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, commenting on the hidden camera video showing Romney talking disparagingly of 47% of all voters.

A hidden camera video of Mitt Romney at a fundraiser shows him talking disparagingly of people who will vote for President Obama.

Said Romney: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”

He adds: “My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

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“Is there anyone who believes that dividing America and trying to find
some group to tax more is somehow going to create more jobs?”

— Mitt Romney, on Fox News, on April 11, 2012.

The comment is particularly interesting in light of Romney’s remarks captured on a hidden video at a fundraiser.

A Global Strategy Group (D) poll in Indiana finds Mitt Romney leading President Obama by six points in the presidential race, 47% to 41%.

In the U.S. Senate race, Joe Donnelly (D) edges Richard Mourdock (R), 45% to 42%.

A hidden camera caught Mitt Romney joking at a fundraiser that he might have a better chance at winning the election if he had Mexican grandparents.

Said Romney: “My dad, as you probably know, was the governor of Michigan and was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico… and had he been born of Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot at winning this. But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He lived there for a number of years. I mean, I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino.”

[Read more…]

Josh Green: “Romney’s problem is not that he’s brought too little executive rigor to the job of running for president — it’s that he’s brought too much. He’s behaved too much like a businessman (or a consultant) and not enough like a politician. His campaign has all the hallmarks of being run by someone looking only at the numbers, who lacks a true politician’s appreciation for the other dimensions of a race – a feel for the electorate, a convincing long-term plan for the country. Were he forced to defend himself before a board of directors, Romney would actually have a pretty solid case for doing what he’s done.”

A new Pew Research survey finds that just 26% of those who have followed news on the attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East approve of Mitt Romney’s comments on the situation, while 48% disapprove.

In contrast, 45% approve of President Obama’s handling of the recent turmoil, while 36% disapprove.

“Outside groups have accounted for almost half of all ad spending during this presidential general election,” First Read reports.

“Groups supporting the presidential candidates but not affiliated with the campaign, including Super PACs, have spent $267 million of the $605.7 million spent on television and radio ads… That means about 44 cents of every dollar spent on ads this election has come from outside groups.”

“There’s a big difference between who they’re supporting. Three-quarters of all money spent by outside groups — $212 million — has gone to support Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.”

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Wisconsin shows President Obama barely edging Mitt Romney among likely voters, 49% to 48%.

In the U.S. Senate race, Tammy Baldwin (D) now leads Tommy Thompson (R), 48% to 45%.