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Chuck Todd to Romney: 'Act like a candidate that wants this thing'

 The gaffes by Mitt Romney have piled up in recent weeks putting his presidential campaign strategy into question.

 

The gaffes by Mitt Romney have piled up in recent weeks putting his presidential campaign strategy into question. His latest mistep was revealed Monday night when liberal magazine Mother Jones released a secretly taped video of Romney making comments at a Florida fundraiser in which he described 47% of voters as "dependent on the government" and thus voting for President Obama and not a group he needed to worry about.

Mitt Romney defended the comments in a press conference as "not elegantly stated," but similar to remarks he's been making all along about the need for smaller government.

"This comes on top of everything else. This is a campaign that has been dealing with nothing but setbacks [in recent weeks]," explained Chuck Todd on Morning Joe Tuesday. "Never mind that there’s a clear bump in the polls for the president; economic optimism is at an all-time high, which appears to be thanks to Bill Clinton; … and then this video happens. Where to begin?"


 

Todd, who hosts msnbc's Daily Rundown, also questioned the thinking behind Romney's press conference.

"What was the point of that press conference last night by Mitt Romney if he wasn’t going to walk something back?" Todd asked. "If all he was going to do was agree with what he said and say he was inartful, you could have said that in a press release."

Ultimately, the problems within the campaign come down to "Mitt Romney is not a good campaigner," Todd added.

With few days to waste until election day, Todd also argued that the Romney campaign does not portray a candidate who "wants this thing" bad enough.

"He does maybe an event a day and not always in a swing state," Todd said. "If you’re looking for what do you do differently if you’re Mitt Romney? Go act like a candidate that wants this thing. You know what Bill Clinton did when he was in crisis in ’92? The guy just all of sudden did town hall after town hall. Campaign to death. Look like you want this thing."