Un-Fucking-Believable

Yesterday, I was wondering how far Romney's apparent support for radical anti-Muhammed filmmaking will go.  For example, does Mitt plan on campaigning with Terry Jones, the Quran-burning preacher from Florida who supported the movie? Does Romney plan on screening the movie before every one of his campaign events?

Well, someone in the Romney Camp also saw this as a potential problem.  The following was taken from a list of message points issued yesterday by the Romney Campaign to its surrogates (via CNN):

Questions & Answers:

Don’t you think it was appropriate for the embassy to condemn the controversial movie in question? Are you standing up for movies like this?

– Governor Romney rejects the reported message of the movie. There is no room for religious hatred or intolerance.

– But we will not apologize for our constitutional right to freedom of speech.

– Storming U.S. missions and committing acts of violence is never acceptable, no matter the reason. Any response that does not immediately and decisively make that clear conveys weakness.

– If pressed: Governor Romney repudiated this individual in 2010 when he attempted to mobilize a Quran-burning movement. He is firmly against any expression of religious hatred or intolerance.

Wait what?  Didn't Romney just say yesterday that there is indeed room for religious hatred or intolerance when he came out in defense of folks who engage in religious hatred or intolerance?  Now he is opposed to such expression? As Jed Lewison at Daily Kos notes, Romney "condemned the embassy statement for saying basically the same thing." 

The most hilarious part of all this is that the Romney Campaign has accused the Obama Administration of sending "mixed signals." The fact that Romney's people were compelled to issue such talking points essentially supports the President's statement that Romney likes to "shoot first and aim later."

By the way, this is pretty funny as well (via Political Wire):

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asserted yesterday that Mitt Romney was right to point out that the U.S. embassy attacks in Egypt and Libya were due to "perceived American weakness."

However, the Daily Dolt points out that there were twelve embassy attacks during George W. Bush's presidency -- the most of any president -- including eight under Rumsfeld's watch.