Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said something interesting the other day about his party platform, and Rachel has featured it on the show this week. I tend to think the quote hasn't gotten as much attention as it deserves.
For those who can't watch clips online, Priebus told MSNBC this week, "As far as our platform is concern, I mean this is the platform of the Republican Party. It`s not the platform of Mitt Romney."
Can we nip this myth in the bud?
There is no doubt about who is in charge, of course. Delegates for presumptive nominee Mitt Romney are voting down substantive changes to the platform language that was written at the direction of Romney's campaign.
"There is no doubt about who is in charge." In this case, that references Romney's team. The platform was "written at the direction of Romney's campaign." It's not exactly ambiguous.
I can understand why Priebus may want to distance the candidate from his own platform -- the RNC doesn't want mainstream voters to think Romney's a nut -- but I'm afraid it's too late for that.
The Republican Party's platform is an extremist document, pushing measures well outside the American mainstream. It is fairly characterized as "the most conservative platform in modern history."
Romney and his surrogates may find that politically inconvenient, but that doesn't change the candidate's ownership of it.
