Shortly before ceding South Carolina to his republican rivals and leaving the state, Mitt Romney got into a heated exchange with AP reporter Glen Johnson over Romney’s reliance on lobbyists as senior advisers.
This type of thing might not have received nearly as much attention in the past, but the prevalence of online video has made it far easier to publicize and distribute an incident like this in its entirety to a large audience.
First reported on a CBS News blog, video of the incident and the aftermath in which Romney returned to pick up the argument with Johnson has been quickly circulated by Veracifier and of course picked up by Keith Olberman. Gone are the days when the press conference ended when you turned off the microphone.
“Don’t argue with the candidate?????” How assinine this is. What’s a reporter expected to do? Sit there like a trained seal and write down what the candidate says? To NOT question? So Mitt Romney didn’t like the question; so what? Back-and-forth between subject and reporter is EXPECTED. The reporter wasn’t disrespectful; he was searching for answers. You get them by questioning the candidate. You don’dt want questions? Buy another ad. That little session made Romney appear the LEAST presidential of all candidates. Geez, ANSWER the effing question.