Rolling Stone Smacks Romney Around

Here at Boston Daily, we’re big fans of pointing out the absurdist humor inherent in all political campaigns. I, in particular, am especially fond of it.

It’s no surprise, then, that Matt Taibbi is one of my favorite writers. His book on the 2004 presidential campaign, cleverly titled Spanking the Donkey, is a brilliant piece of writing. The guy is vicious and talented, and Rolling Stone is lucky to have him.

To that end, I draw your attention to Taibbi’s latest target: Mitt Romney.

Taibbi profiles our former governor in this week’s Rolling Stone piece called “The Huckster.” It is a brutal, unflinching story, and it’s also the most honest evaluation of Romney that I’ve read to date.

Here’s one of my favorite passages, in which Taibbi, like many Boston Daily readers, is dumbfounded by the fact that America is buying the garbage Romney dumps on them. (Still, I say give the people a break, Matt. He did, after all, fool an entire state.)

Only in America do audiences not burst out laughing when a guy worth $250 million gets up onstage and says he and his CEO buddies spend their spare time racking their brains to find ways to help people.

Romney’s “business” wasn’t turning labor into product, it was turning money into money — and more than a few of his investments were of the scorched-earth variety, buying up companies and cashing out within three to five years, often after closing factories or laying off workers to beef up the bottom line.

Taibbi’s conclusion is that Romney is the most polished and unapologetic pol currently running in the GOP field — which, naturally, will be his undoing. Running after Bush, Taibbi believes, guarantees defeat. That and the fact that the people who actually get to know the real Romney aren’t that fond of him.

One former partner, Bob White, says he got so tired of Romney shooting down deals in strategy meetings that he wanted to “punch him in the nose.”

That’s exactly what Taibbi does in this story—cracks Romney right in the face. More journalists should be so bold.