Mitt Romney Had the Worst Week in Washington Again

I know it seems like this has been said every other week, but I really think this was the week that essentially ended the Romney for Plutocrat campaign and will finally give Mitt a chance to spend quality time with his loved ones. And fives. And $50s and $100s.

My transcription of a new ad from the Democratic National Committee and one from Organizing for America follows below:

HEADLINE: Mitt Romney Had the Worst Week in Washington Again

Monday Morning

DIANE SAWYER (ABC): The Romney camp is said to be engineering a reboot.

ANCHOR (CNN): Romney's reboot comes just after Politico published a detailed insider's account of his campaign's recent stumbles.

JIM VANDEHEI, Politico (CNN): You have a campaign that's really sort of hit real turbulence.

Monday Evening

KOLO8 NEWS VOICEOVER: The Romney campaign is in crisis mode, scrambling to explain a secretly recorded tape where Romney tells wealthy donors nearly half of all Americans see themselves as victims.

Tuesday

DAVID GERGEN (CNN): It was almost oafish for someone who has a bank account in the Cayman Islands, in order to reduce taxes, to criticize someone who's in need.

Wednesday

WOLF BLITZER (CNN): They are words that put knots in the stomach of many Republicans. Their Presidential nominee writing off Obama supporters as 'dependent victims.'

But forget about an apology. Despite widespread criticism is grabbing his uh...remarks running with them.

Thursday

JAKE TAPPER (ABC): The Romney campaign faces some questions from Republican donors about a $20 million loan it had to take and also up to $200,000 in bonuses given to top campaign staffers apparently for doing such an astounding job. [ED. The transcript can't convey the subtly sarcastic tone in which Tapper says this last sentence.)

Friday

ANCHOR VOICEOVER (NBC): Paul Ryan's Medicare speech to AARP members today was met with resistance.

PAUL RYAN: The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare. (AUDIENCE: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)

RYAN (raising voice over the din while jabbing his index finger Gov. Jan Brewer-style at a hall of informed seniors): Because it represents the worst of both worlds. (AUDIENCE: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! GENERAL BACKGROUND AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOISES OF DISCONTENT AND SLINGING OF AURAL TOMATOES AND SHOES.)

RYAN: I had a feeling there would be mixed reactions.

ANCHOR VOICEOVER (NBC): Many convention goers walked out of the room when Ryan took the stage to discuss Medicare reform which would transform the program into a voucher system under his budget plan.

A DIFFERENT ANCHOR VOICEOVER (NBC):Today the campaign also posted a summary of Romney's tax records dating back to 1990 but with no specific details.

ANALYST; It would be much better for people to see it for themselves.

Final image sequence.

If this is the Romney campaign...

Can you imagin a Romney administration?

Organizing for America has an ad featuring a Craig, Colorado teacher named Cheryl in which she describes meeting Mitt Romney.

The most striking moment, for me, comes at the 0:48 mark. I had to repeat it and let it sink in.

In May, Cheryl was asked to participate in a roundtable with Mitt Romney.

CHERYL: When I was asked to speak with Mitt Romney it seemed like a very important thing to me and I wanted to put a lot of careful thought into what I would say.

So I went to the roundtable discussion very optimistic and interested in hearing what he had to say.

When he sat down, one of the first questions he asked was, 'I understand one of you is a teacher here today. Which one of you is the teacher?'

So I raised my hand thinking, 'That's a good thing. He's interested in education.'

But it wasn't a good thing.

I felt like his view was a little old-fashioned. I was surprised by it.

He went on to kind of lecture me about schools and how bad they are. He talked bad about the teacher's union. He was talking about the importance of private schools and voucher systems.

0:48
At one point I said to him, I have an answer for that. And he said, 'I didn't ask you a question.'

When I think of Mitt Romney, I don't think of a person who could really relate to small town Craig, Colorado.

Although he came here, I don't think that his life experience would allow him to really understand the perspective of people who live in a small town.

One of the things that I have liked best that Obama has done for education is that he is releasing states form "No Child Left Behind."

Colorado is one of the states that's been lucky enough to be released.

I did not become a teacher to become wealthy or powerful. I became a teacher to make a difference.

It's important to us to have a government and a leader that respects us, that will listen to us, even if he doesn't agree with us. We need to have an open conversation; an open communication between educators and government and I think President Obama's the one to do that.

Web ads like these are designed to reach voting groups that don't watch television and provide supporters with a message they can share through social media.

The other item to note in these ads are the stories that the mainstream media is covering  which reinforce the Democrats message. While the Sunday talk shows like 'Meet the Republicans' routinely carry water for the GOP, when NBC accurately describes Ryan's Medicare plan as a plan to transform the program into a voucher plan, they are reaching millions of voters, who can then make an informed choice of whether they want to keep Medicare as it is or voucherize it.