Annals Of Presidential Oratory: Romney 'Concession' Speech Edition

There was a moment last night, watching Mitt Romney deliver his "Yes! We're never going to win a major state primary ever!" speech where I thought something was going terribly wrong. I'm talking about the part where Romney started repeating this same theme over and over again, but with a strange rhetorical stutter: "They've heard Washington promise to buy the world a Coke, but they...they haven't. They've heard Washington say that they'll totally pick you up at the airport the next time you come to town, but they...they haven't." I thought: Oh, no! Has something gone wrong with Mitt's internal programming? Has he not been eating enough of those precious silver medals that power his cybernetics? Oy, robot!

But, as it turns out, I was wrong. A second later, Mitt tries this little oratory trick again and at last, his audience realizes: "Oh! We get it! He wants us all to chant 'They haven't' along with him!" Romney takes a moment to chide the audience, telling them in faux-relief how happy he was that they finally got what he was trying to do. That's not very nice of him! In the first place, it's not like the people standing behind him, who are affiliated with his own campaign were of any help! But more to the point, it sort of shows how Romney's supporters, more than anyone else, know full well that Mitt can't be counted on to say the same thing twice.