Carl Bernstein: This election is a referendum on the radical Republican Party

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

While waiting for someone, I happened to catch the Chris Jansing & Co. show on MSNBC this morning, and was pleasantly surprised to catch Watergate legend Carl Bernstein provide his election analysis (rush transcript):

CARL BERNSTEIN: I think there is a fundamental problem and that is the Republican Party.

The polls reflect the fact that the real issue in this campaign has become the Republican Party in Washington. That it's a radical party such as we have never seen in a presidential race before; that Mitt Romney has become a captive of it; and we've seen in the seante races that are shifting more and more towards Democrats who were expected to lose or be competitive. It's about who the Republicans are in Washington and the really radical message that Romney is saddled with and he can't get out of it.

And the 47% remark is devastating because it really reflects what so many people in the Republican majority in Washington, in the house particularly, believe. That these are freeloaders, that these are people who aren't worthy of our consideration really a human beings in our soclal contract. Romney said out loud what many in his party believe and what an ideology in his party has come to embrace. It was no accident he said it, and he stuck with it.

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[Romney's] really trapped. He's trapped by himself, and he's trapped by the people who have captured hin on the Republican right.

You know, in Washington there has been by Republicans in Washington, since the McCarthy era,  a hunt for so-called radicals on the other side. There has never been a really radical Democratic Party. But now we have in Washington a truly radical Republican Party way outside the mainstream of even the Ronald Reagan party. So there is a huge problem Romney has to position himself. He was in a position to make it at one point about Obama and his presidency the issue. He's lost that chance by what's happened since the convention.

Bernstein agreed with Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Tribune that Romney lost that chance when he picked the radical Paul Ryan as his running mate. They are joined by former Florida governor Charlie Crist.

Video below the fold.

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