Call a Wawambulance*

The major excitement of the current news cycle among the righty blogs is that MSNBC aired an edited verson of Mitt Romney’s remarks at a Pennsylvania rally during his current bustourpalooza about the “amazing” ultra-high-tech procedure for ordering hoagies he’d personally discovered at a Wawa fast food outlet, but omitted Mitt’s Big Point: Private sector good, public bad. Politico is on the case:

Discussing how the public sector suffers from a lack of competition, Romney told the audience about an optometrist who wanted to change his address and subsequently received 33 pages of paperwork from the federal government, which begat a months-long bureaucratic nightmare during which the optometrist in question wasn’t receiving his checks. “That’s how government works,” Romney said.

Then, to illustrate the advantages of competition in the private sector, Romney shared an anecdote from his visit to the local WaWa chain store. “I was at WaWas, I went in to order a sandwich. You press a little touchtone keypad—you touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier—there’s your sandwich. It’s amazing. People in the private sector have learned how to compete. It’s time to bring some competition to the federal government.”

The “story” was broken by new kid on the wingnut block, the somewhat excitable SOOPERMEXICAN:

Another Ridiculous Lie From Liberal Media – Distorting Romney’s “WAWAs” Hoagie Speech

Another example of how ridiculous the media is in their uncompromising struggle to distort the truth in order to make sure Obama wins and Conservatives lose.

Today it’s being widely reported that Romney had a moment were he was amazed at the existence of WAWAs, a convenience/gas store, and the electronic touchtone ordering of sandwiches. They have spun this to make it seem like he’s out of touch – BUT THE VIDEO IS EDITED DECEPTIVELY.

Yup, it’s that mean old liberal MSM again, always in the tank for Obama and ensuring that Mittens can never get a break when he obfuscates, misspeaks or routinely just plain makes shit up, as in this case.

I’m not entirely certain of the campaign wisdom of highlighting this clip, which—as you’ll see if you watch the version above—in its entirety is a painfully awkward reminder that he’s a chip off the old block. Wikipedia observes about his father George:

Life magazine wrote that Romney “manages to turn self-expression into a positive ordeal” and that he was no different in private: “nobody can sound more like the public George Romney than the real George Romney let loose to ramble, inevitably away from the point and toward some distant moral precept.”

and

Governor Jim Rhodes of Ohio more memorably said, “Watching George Romney run for the presidency was like watching a duck try to make love to a football.”

Still, I’m sure the rightisphere knows what it’s doing, and this will apparently be the downfall of MSNBC and herald the Dawn of a New Age of Enrightenment. Oh well. Once Mitt discovers the wonders of ATMs, that’ll be the end of the US’s budget problems and he’ll coast to victory in November.

* Second-string title: Libby Spencer at The Impolitic had already nabbed “Get Yer WaWa’s Out.”

More: Sometimes—as at moments like this—the Memeorandum headlines are worth preserving just to prolong the enjoyment of the sheer bonkers of some of our commentariat:

SOOPERMEXICAN:
Another Ridiculous Lie From Liberal Media - Distorting Romney’s “WAWAs” Hoagie Speech —  Another example of how ridiculous the media is in their uncompromising struggle to distort the truth in order to make sure Obama wins and Conservatives lose.  —  Today it’s being widely reported …
–
Discussion:
Betsy Newmark / Betsy’s Page:  MSNBC is out of touch —  For a few hours yesterday …
Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:  LIB MEDIA LIARS BUSTED - Purposely Distort Romney in Highly Edited WAWA Moment (Video)
Margaret Hartmann / New York Magazine:  MSNBC Misrepresents Romney Speech, Invents Wawa ‘Gaffe’
The Right Scoop:  MSNBC caught redhanded smearing Romney as out of touch by SELECTIVELY editing video
Libby Spencer / The Impolitic:  Get Yer WaWa’s Out —  It’s amazing!  —  To be fair I’ve never heard of WaWa myself.
Metrosexual Black AbeJ / Balloon Juice:  Maybe I’m amazed
McPartland / nation.foxnews.com:  NBC News Smears Romney With Sneaky Edit
Ken Shepherd / NewsBusters.org blogs:  MSNBC Hypes Minor Romney Gaffe, Edits Video to Remove Substance of Argument, Suggest He’s Out of Touch
The Lonely Conservative:  Mitt Romney Praises Private Sector and WaWa, Media Edits Comments to Look Like a Gaffe

RELATED:
Dylan Byers / Politico:
MSNBC mischaracterizes Romney remarks —  MSNBC aired footage today that inaccurately portrayed Mitt Romney’s remarks at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.  —  Discussing how the public sector suffers from a lack of competition, Romney told the audience about an optometrist who wanted to change …
–
Discussion:
Steve M. / No More Mister Nice Blog:  EVERY STORY ABOUT ROMNEY AND WAWA MISSES THE POINT, INCLUDING THE DEBUNKINGS
Ed Driscoll:  MSNBC Gets Caught Cooking the Books
David Edwards / The Raw Story:  Romney says gas station’s touch-screen ordering is ‘amazing’
Steve J. / RADAMISTO:  MITTENS IS SURE NO “JOE SIX-PACK”

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:
When Mitt Romney Went To “WaWas”  —  Romney amazed by the convenience store’s hoagie ordering terminals.
–
Discussion:
Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:  MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Calls Wawa’s Gaffe Mitt Romney’s ‘Grocery Scanner Moment’

Maggie Haberman / Politico:
Romney’s Wawa visit (Updated)  —  There were some write-ups of Mitt Romney’s visit to a Wawa over the weekend during the Pennsylvania leg of his tour, most of which focused on his wading into a local battle over what store has better hoagies.  —  But there was also this moment in which he talked about the …
–
Discussion:
Moe Lane:  What to take away from the debunking of MSNBC’s fake Romney WaWa ‘scandal.’
Bryan Preston / The PJ Tatler:  Surprise (Not): MSNBC Lies About Romney’s WaWa Speech, and There’s Video Proof (Update: Politico Repeats Mitchell’s Lie)

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Media pretty excited about Romney talking up Wawa subs or something; Update: Deceptive editing —  Via the Corner, this is what happens when the big political story on tap for today — a Syriza win in Greece followed by a global market meltdown over the break-up of the eurozone …
–
Discussion:
David A. Graham / Twitchy:  Pressing issue of our time: Romney and the great Wawa debate; Update: Media caught lying about ‘Wawa’ moment
Katrina Trinko / National Review:  Let Romney Love Wawa
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:  A 33 Page Form To Change Your Address?
Reliapundit / THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS:  MORE VIDEO PROOF THE LEGACY MEDIA IS DOMINATED BY LYING LEFT-WING SCUM

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:
Postcards from the Bus-Capade: Romney Road Report
–
Discussion:
Mistermix / Balloon Juice:  Just Ignore the Lies and Focus on the Stupid
Prairie Weather:  Humming along in the background, not far from where Fox hangs out

Update:

Heh. I guess you can add us to the clamor now:

SOOPERMEXICAN:
Another Ridiculous Lie From Liberal Media - Distorting Romney’s “WAWAs” Hoagie Speech —  Another example of how ridiculous the media is in their uncompromising struggle to distort the truth in order to make sure Obama wins and Conservatives lose.  —  Today it’s being widely reported …
–
Discussion:
Yafb / Rumproast:  Call a Wawambulance*  —  The major excitement of the current …

Posted by YAFB on 06/19/12 at 06:45 AM • Permalink

I’ve had George Harrison stuck in my head ever since this damn story broke.  (Which isn’t a bad thing, actually.)

Steve updated his post at No More Mister Nice Blog (linked in my post) to cover that:

UPDATE: OK—Tommy Christopher of Mediaite found the Medicaid service provider change of address form and it’s (PDF) two pages long, plus two pages of instructions. Four—not 33.

Maybe Romney’s optometrist pal is confusing this with a form from, say, Aetna or United Health.

Now we just need to know whether this optometrist was seven feet tall and the circle will be complete.

For some reason I can’t at all fathom, the RW blogs are deeply intent on turning this in to some kind of -Gate, much of their ire directed at Tommy Christopher, who stubbornly refuses to play ball when faced with the “Gotcha!” that they’ve spent much of the day when they weren’t pebbledashing their screens with spittle to track down some form that indeed 30-odd pages long, so there #NeiderNeiderNeiderVastLeftWingConspiracyHackputt.

Update: The geniuses at Breitbart.com raise the possibility that Romney isn’t a liar, but just stupid and still wrong. In his remarks, he said the optometrist was trying to change his address with the federal government so he could get paid for services to “the poor and seniors,” which would be Medicaid. Medicare is not a program for the poor, and they don’t have a change of address form.

Providers who can’t work out their online system must fill out an entire new enrollment packet, which is 25 pages. That’s because it’s a contract, and much of that 25 pages is devoted to warnings against defrauding taxpayers and the like.

But surely, the Breitbart.commers aren’t suggesting that Mitt Romney doesn’t know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid? When you’re this deep in a hole, stop digging.

This is just another of those days when I thank my lucky stars I’m not a wingnut blogger and have the remote semblance of a life.

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