Politico
Mitt Romney had a good week even as his “47 percent” comments dominated the headlines, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday.
“I think that we had a good week last week,” Priebus said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think in retrospect, in that we were able to frame up the debate last week in the sense of, what future do we want and do you want out there.”
That came after Priebus said, earlier on in the interview, that Romney has been clear his “47 percent” remark “probably wasn’t the best-said moment in the campaign” and, ultimately, this was “probably not the best week in the campaign.”
That comes even as many high-profile Republicans, including Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, have begun arguing that the Romney campaign needs a turnaround and that, even more fundamentally, the Republican Party needs to change.
“I respect and I admire people that get very concerned,” Priebus said, referring to Romney’s critics within the GOP. “Even if they’re upset about, you know, something that happens in a campaign or if the week needs to be better, like last week,” things will ultimately work out “because I think that this is a different kind of campaign.”
“I promise you on my life, I’m not sitting here talking to you because I’m worried about the future of the Republican Party,” Priebus said. “We’re worried about the future of this country, and that’s why, you know, I think that the leeway given on our side of the aisle is very small to the likes of Peggy Noonan and other writers that say, hey, listen, guys, you need to — we need to be ahead, we need to be pounding away.”