As you may recall, a few weeks back we held the first Stump contest of the 2012 campaign, to see who could come up with a Romneyesque gaffe to match Mitt’s “not concerned about the very poor” remark. The criteria were quite exact—the gaffe, like the “poor” line, needed to be substantively upsetting to both left and right, no small feat. But you all rose to the occasion with several dozen doozies, including Tim Teeter’s winning entry: “The problem isn’t the individual mandate, which is perfectly constitutional; it’s the very idea of universal coverage.”
Well, today I am obliged to announce that Tim will retroactively have to share his crown with ... Mitt Romney! Because the candidate late yesterday popped out another beaut. Speaking in Shelby Township, Michigan, Romney said:
“If you just cut, if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy. So you have to, at the same time, create pro-growth tax policies.”
Yes, in the space of two sentences, Romney upheld both supply-side tax dogma and Keynesian principles of the sort no Republican candidate should be caught dead uttering in 2012. People, what we are witnessing in this campaign is a rare talent. This is like watching Daedalus figure out how to respond to King Minos’ challenge to wind the thread from one end of the conch shell to the other. Enjoy the spectacle while you can.
follow me on Twitter @AlecMacGillis
amacgillis@tnr.com