RUSH: Now, here’s Romney. This was this morning on NBC News. F. Chuck Todd was talking to Romney, and F. Chuck said, “Do you have a feeling that this campaign has turned into a race to the bottom?” Because your ad — your ad, Mr. Romney — it’s the lowest of the low and even the New York Times says so!
Do you feel we’re racing to the bottom here?
ROMNEY: Our campaign would be helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues, and that attacks based upon business or family or taxes or things of that nature, that this is just a diversion. Our ads haven’t gone after the president personally. Our ads talk about his record as president and failure of his policies to create jobs, but we haven’t dredged up the old stuff that people talked about last time. We haven’t gone after the personal things.
RUSH: Hmmm.
So is Romney asking for credit for that, or is he on the defensive? (paraphrased exchange) F. Chuck says, “Is your campaign going to the bottom?” and Romney says, “No, no, we’re not going to the bottom. We need a truce. We need a truce.” Now, some people… I should say Mr. Snerdley is going nuts in there. I have heard some people think that if you read between the lines there, that there’s a threat from Romney, maybe a preview of what’s coming.
We haven’t done it, quote, “yet.” We haven’t gotten personal “yet.” We haven’t dredged up that old stuff that people talked about last time around “yet,” like Jeremiah Wright and like Bill Ayers. We haven’t done that “yet.” Some people say that’s what they hear in this ad. Others are saying, “No, no, it’s not that. That’s wishful thinking. If that’s what you think you’re hearing, it’s wishful thinking.” What Romney is asking is for Obama to stop the negative stuff.
And, of course, if that’s the case, that’s laughable, it isn’t going to happen. And, again, people are saying: “You didn’t have any problem going personal with Newt. You didn’t have any problems going personal with Santorum. You didn’t have any problem with going personal with Bachmann. What is it with Obama? Why in the world do we not pull the trigger against Obama? What is everybody afraid of?” We all know the answer: Race.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We’ve got a new Romney ad, by the way. It’s number 26. It’s Romney slamming the Obama PAC ad. This is, I guess, Romney firing back at the ad in which Romney’s accused of committing murder.
ANNOUNCER: What does it say about a president’s character when his campaign tries to use the tragedy of a woman’s death for political gain?
RUSH: Never mind. Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. Stop the tape. Stop the tape. It doesn’t do any good to play this, because it’s full of graphics after the first question. They quote various newspapers.
“Scraping bottom,” Chicago Tribune.
“Disgusting,” ABC News.
ABC News, “Obama campaign knowing” lying about it.
“Unfair attacks,” CBS News.
So what Romney has done here in this ad is collected a bunch of network and newspaper printed-word editorials. They ask these questions, and they use the graphic excerpts of the editorials in the ad. And, of course, it ends with “I’m Mitt Romney and I approve this message.” So that’s their fight-back: Quoting the media on their reaction to Obama’s PAC ad accusing Romney of committing murder.