Mitt Faux-to Op Scandal Rocks Primary

Local and national media outlets, including Politico.com, reported that Romney was the picture of empathy as he sat at the Marshall, Mich. kitchen table of 51-year-old Elizabeth Sachs, a single mother of two who lost her job as a retail manager – as well as her health insurance – and is running out of money as she tries to sell her house to move to Florida. What wasn't reported – and what the Romney campaign did not reveal at the time – was that one of Sachs' sons, Steve Sachs, is a paid employee of Romney's campaign, organizing five counties in Michigan.

The timing here is pretty awful, depending on how quickly, if at all, this story gains traction. What is the story here? Details after the jump.

Politico's original report, from Sunday, posited Michigan as a huge turning point for Romney, a notion that I dismissed as a false narrative. Now, with Romney teed up to be knocked out of the race for the GOP presidential nod, a big story that fits the media's "plastic man" label could spell big trouble for Romney's candidacy. Is any of this fair to Romney?

The purpose of the photo op was ostensibly to highlight the plight of working people in Michigan. For Romney to try to gain sympathy for someone who pretended to be single, unemployed, and without health insurance, and passed herself off as a neutral voter, is unconscion...sorry, this just in. She really is unemployed, without health insurance, and was identified as a Romney supporter.

So, what's the story? Does the fact that her son works for Romney change any of the substantive facts? If you doubt Romney's ability to help working people, check out his platform, examine his record (I did), and form your judgment based on that.

As the Romney campaign points out, nothing was preventing the reporters present from asking her what her son did for a living. Is it sinister not to volunteer that information? If he were my candidate, I would have done it differently, but this shouldn't be a big deal.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. There are certain candidates who seem to attract the media dogpile, while others do not. So far, Romney has found himself at the bottom of that metaphorical canine piedmont for most of his campaign, from the religion issue to his own Martin Luther King kerfuffle. Romney may or may not deserve to be knocked out of the GOP race, but he certainly doesn't deserve all of this.

I find it somewhat telling that, at Politico, they're running a banner, "Politico's KingMaker", and it's an online game. I think that's a great metaphorical summation for this cycle's campaign coverage in general. Sadly, for America's voters, this isn't a game, but it seems they will continue to get played.

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