Republican governors Bobby Jindal (LA) and Scott Walker (WI) spoke out against Mitt Romney’s claim that Obama won because he gave minorities and young people “big gifts” in the form of Obamacare, his DREAM directive, and partial college loan forgiveness. At the Republican Governors Association meeting in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Jindal called the statement “absolutely wrong,” saying, “I absolutely reject that notion.” Walker, who was on a panel with Jindal when he denounced Romney, agreed that the GOP isn’t “just for people who are currently not dependent on the government. It’s for all Americans.”
Both governors, who were Romney surrogates, stayed quiet during Romney’s earlier iteration of this idea, when he told donors that 47 percent of Americans “believe they are victims” and will never “take personal responsibility.” Walker ducked the controversy at the time, saying “That’s a statement he has to take on, not myself.” Jindal also deferred judgment, refusing to “be one of these political pundits.”
But after a definitive loss down the ticket on Election Night, Republicans are doing some “brutally honest” soul-searching about the future of their party. Jindal was especially outspoken, imploring the GOP to “stop being the stupid party.” He was blunt in his newfound criticism for Romney in an interview with Politico…
The problem with Mitt’s gaffe is that the base is finding it way too easy to believe it. And if the base likes it, the conservative media will like it — and then things start to get out of hand. There’s a reason why Jindal teamed up with Walker to smack down Romney — Walker’s still a big hero on the right. If it comes down to who’s more influential, Walker or Romney, they’re hoping the base will choose Walker.
And in any logical setting they would. Walker’s a success story and Romney’s a failure. But Republicans and conservative media have foolishly trained Republican voters to believe whatever’s most comforting, logic and facts be damned. They may not be able to stem this self-destructive talking point, in the end. It may go viral, like the rape-theorizing after Todd Akin’s idiocy. In that case, it was defense of a position that outraged liberals that moved other rape commenters forward. The same may happen here.
