On Friday’s CBS This Morning, the co-hosts interviewed Mitt and Ann Romney at 8:17 in the show's second hour. Strangely, CBS Evening News couldn’t find a single soundbite of any length from that interview that was worth re-airing on Friday night, nor did CBS re-use any of it over the weekend.
It’s obviously a favorable environment for Romney after the Obamacare failures, and CBS’s Charlie Rose wanted to see how negative Romney would get: “But do you think the President lied to the American people on purpose for personal gain?” Romney suggested the media already documented that answer: (Video and transcript below)
ROMNEY: Oh, I think the President understood, it's now quite well documented that his administration. He understood that a lot of people would lose their insurance. That was in the nature of the entire product that they put forward. They knew that and yet said, well, you can keep your insurance, period. And that was wrong.
CHARLIE ROSE: --how do you characterize that, just wrong?
MITT ROMNEY: Just dishonesty. It`s just dishonest. There's no-- what-- what starts twisted stays twisted. And-- and it`s not going to be able to be fixed until we fundamentally reshape Obamacare, either repeal it or reshape it and reform it.
Rose started with a softball:
ROSE: But first, one year later, is there anything within you wants to say to the American people, I told you so? [Laughter]
ROMNEY: Well, I think a lot of people recognize the flaws in the Obamacare product, not just its implementation but the more fundamental flaw, which was the President promised people could keep their plans. That promise was not accurate, it was not honest. And the whole foundation of his second term, I think, is in jeopardy as a result of that.
ROSE: At the same time they look to what happened in Massachusetts and they say, 'Look, Massachusetts had problems with their rollout too, give us time."
ROMNEY: Well, actually the real problem with the President's plan is not just the rollout. That's implementation and-- and glitches of various kinds. It should have been done better but it wasn`t. But the real problem that the President has is a broken promise, his dishonesty. And that's of course what`s really striking at the-- at the heart of his term.
Despite the glum environment for Democrats right now, CBS co-host Norah O'Donnell wanted to fixate on the GOP's problems: "I know you're both involved in the future of the Republican Party as well. The Republican Party has lost five of -- the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. How does the party need to change?" Romney said they need to nominate "who has the best prospect of winning," but skipped the occasional humble John McCain answer that someone who lost shouldn't be the one to answer that question.
The reason for both Romneys appearing was to promote Ann Romney's new cookbook "The Romney Family Table." CBS did not mention that Mrs. Romney is donating the sales proceeds to the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston.
