As a matter of public policy, it's easy to characterize Mitt Romney's agenda as rather cruel towards struggling families: his platform calls for cutting food stamps, making it harder to afford college tuition, ending health care coverage for millions, etc.
But this week, questions about Romney's personal cruelty have come to the fore. But the Republican's aides have proof that the former governor is a deeply compassionate man. The evidence is evident in, all of things, this clip.
Rick Perry, in this infamous lapse in memory, can't remember the third government agency he's eliminate, and if you listen closely, you can hear Romney suggest, "EPA?" That, apparently, is proof of ... something.
In defending Romney as "deeply compassionate" and "unfailingly kind," [Kerry Healy, a campaign adviser] referred back to debates during the GOP primary when Romney was "being attacked from every side.""His response was always professional, calm, civil," she pointed out. "In fact, he even intervened on behalf [of] -- to try to help -- Gov. Perry when he was stumbling. His impulses are very kind impulses and there should be no debate about whether or not Gov. Romney is a bully."
As Dan Amira responded, "We're not sure what motivated Romney there. Maybe he really did just feel bad for the guy, twisting in the wind in front of a horrified national audience. Or maybe Romney, by demonstrating that he was capable of naming a federal agency, was simply trying to show off his vastly superior mental abilities. Either way, what Romney didn't do, in that moment of vulnerability, is hold Perry down and forcibly shave his head. And that's progress."