Although you wouldn’t guess it from watching his network, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch apparently doesn’t think that Mitt Romney will defeat President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.
Murdoch tweeted on Sunday morning that, unless Romney shakes up his campaign team, it’s “doubtful” that he will be our next president.
Met Romney last week.Tough O Chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from team and hires some real pros. Doubtful.
— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012
He later added “US election is referendum on Obama, all else pretty minor.”
Murdoch’s shot at Romney’s “old friends” may have been directed at Romney’s close adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, who famously declared that Romney will erase his positions from the primaries “like an Etch a Sketch.” If that’s the case, then Murdoch presumably isn’t happy about Fehrnstom’s latest break from the party’s message, when he told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that Romney does not believe that the individual mandate is a tax.
Although Murdoch doesn’t appear to be a big believer in Romney, Fox News has been in the former Massachusetts governor’s corner from day one. Romney has praised the network’s coverage of his campaign, and his top two rivals for the Republican nomination — Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum — both complained that Fox News was in the tank for Romney during the primaries.
