'You've gotta be kidding'

Greg Sargent wonders if Mitt Romney's answer to this question about the now-infamous push poll was rehearsed.



Romney's response definitely sounds rehearsed.

Listen again to the question and the beginning of his answer.

The reporter asks, "are you confident that nobody who supports you was involved in that push polling?"

Romney responds, "You've gotta be kidding."

It sounds like he was expecting her to ask something like, "were you involved with that push poll?" If she had, then "you've gotta be kidding" would make perfect sense. Delivered with that plastic smile, it would strike a plausible balance between outrage and amusement.

But this way, it just doesn't make sense.

She asks if he is confident that his supporters had nothing to do with it. "You've gotta be kidding" could very easily be interpreted to mean Romney suspects his people did have something to do with it. It's just not a natural-sounding answer to that question.

He clearly did not expect the reporter to phrase the question the way she did, and probably actually heard it phrased the way he expected her to ask it.

Is this guy a robot, or what?

It will be fun to refer back to this clip if and when Romney's campaign is indeed found to have had some involvement in the push polling.