White House senior adviser David Plouffe made headlines last month when he told NBC's David Gregory that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney "has no core."
On Sunday's Meet the Press, the host decided to play the part of one of Barack Obama's closest allies and ask Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), "Does Romney have a core politically?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
DAVID GREGORY, HOST: You have a White House now that is trained on a former Massachusetts politician in Mitt Romney, saying that he has no core, preparing to go after him, as Rahm Emanuel did in Iowa last night, on flip-flopping. A lot of people saying this is basically the same election playbook that then President Bush used against you successfully. Is it going to work this time?
SENATOR JOHN KERRY (D-MASSACHUSETTS): Well, I don't know, David. I've been so focused on this deficit reduction, I honestly have not been following the ins and outs of all of that. It's--you know, let them choose their nominee and we'll see where we wind up.
MR. GREGORY: Does Romney have a core politically?
SEN. KERRY: You know, I--again, you know, there are few people I've met in public life who have changed on as many issues as he has, every major touchstone of American politics, from abortion to guns to war to God to gays, you name it. So people will make their own judgments about that. I was accused of voting once for one thing and another. I did it as a matter of principle. I said, "If this plan doesn't have--if this bill doesn't have a plan about this war then I would oppose it. So I opposed it as a matter of principle, and I'll defend that till the day I die. And, and, and he's going to have to defend his positions throughout this race if he's the nominee.
It's almost as if Gregory saw CNN's Dan Lothian ask Obama that pathetic question about whether GOP presidential candidates are "uninformed, out of touch, or irresponsible" last Sunday and thought to himself, "I can do a better job of shilling for the President than that."
