It's got to be tough out there for a Republican presidential candidate. What makes it easier is that that their electorate generally doesn't do a lot deep thinking beyond the platitudes and talking points given to them. Case in point: Mitt Romney, who has decided that his platfom is that Washington is broken and you need an experienced business leader to guide it back on track, the President as a CEO, if you will.

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The only problem? Guess who broke Washington and put it off track? That's right, the man who ran as the MBA President. Tell me again how you run as a change candidate using the exact same positioning as the man you're trying to succeed? And it's all the more troubling when you hear Romney conflate issues to sound convincing that he's the guy to steer us out of our economic woes...I'm not sure, but I think he says he has to lay off federal employees to do that. Judge for yourself:

Transcript below the fold...

There’s no question that if you’re in the business world and you’re trying to save a business that’s in trouble, that you’re not going to be successful 100% of the time. And I’m pretty proud of the fact that we were successful many, many times. We grew jobs quite dramatically in many settings, but often times when an enterprise is in real trouble, you have to try to cut back to save it. And I’ll tell you, when you look at Washington and how badly broken Washington is, you’re going to have to have somebody who can go there and say, ‘You know what? There are too many bureaucrats. There are too many employees in government. We’re going to have to cut back in Washington. I know how to do that and get Washington back on track.

This is fundamentally, I believe, an election about changing Washington. About doing to Washington what has to be done to get America back on track so we can re-grow our economy. And I’ll tell you one thing, Chris: the only way you’re going to have somebody who understands how to rebuild an economy is to have somebody who has been in the economy. Who knows what it’s like to see jobs come and go. Who’s fought to try to build businesses and build jobs. We’re competing around the world now, with China and India, tougher competition than we’ve ever faced before. It’s going to helpful to have a president, when we’re looking at agreements to work out with other countries on trade, who knows what impact those agreements will have on American jobs. Who knows, for instance, when there are tax incentives put in place, how it’s going to change jobs in this country. I am intimately familiar with how our economy works. I’m working very hard to make sure that the workers of this country have a brighter future and I will never accept the idea that jobs are gone in America. I’m going to fight to bring back jobs and to grow this country.