It’s a weird coincidence. The same day I came across the old and arcane political word “snollygoster,” I come across the perfect example of one. According to Taegan Goddard’s Political Dictionary, a snollygoster is:
A politician who will go to any lengths to win public office, regardless of party affiliation or platform.
Mitt Romney is most definitely a snollygoster.
Mitt Romney gave his first extensive postmortem interview Sunday after his 2012 election loss, appearing on “Fox News Sunday” alongside his wife, Ann.
Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Romney to explain what many saw as the downfall of his campaign — the leaked comments about the so-called “47 percent.” In trying to explain them away, he might have revealed why he really lost.
Romney told Wallace that it was a “very unfortunate statement that I made.”
“You know, when you speak in private, you don’t spend as much time thinking about how something could be twisted and distorted, and it could come out wrong and be used,” Romney said.
“But, you know, it did. And it was very harmful. What I said is not what I believe.”
This may or may not be true. It may be that Mittens is just display an emotion rarely seen in modern Republicans: shame — although, that’s not a bet I’d place. But one thing’s for sure, that collection of gold-plated elites he was speaking to sure believed it. So that’s what he told them. Because he’d tell anyone anything to get elected.
BI’s Brett LoGiurato goes on to quote The American Conservative’s Daniel Larison on Mitt’s honesty — and Larison is scathing:
[I]t never mattered whether Romney “really” believed what he was saying, because it became clear years ago that he would have said almost anything to win. In that case, it was a good bet that Romney was always more likely to lie to his audience than not, and for that reason he disqualified himself through sheer, overwhelming dishonesty. When in doubt, it was safe to assume that Romney was lying, and it was usually safe to assume the worst about his intentions. If there was a chance that he might cave in to hard-liners and ideologues in his party, there was no reason to believe that he would ever stand up to them. When the 47% remarks came out, it didn’t matter whether he believed what he had said, because he had been willing to say it and he had done so because he was so desperate to appeal to the worst elements in his party.
A snollygoster, ladies and gentleman. In the truest sense of the word. Thank whatever force it is that you believe in that Mitt Romney lost.
