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Click here to view this media Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday that if Republicans want to take the presidency from Barack Obama in 2012 then their campaign theme should be “he made it worse.” “I’m confident we’re going to nominate someone who is a credible, believable alternative” to Obama, McConnell said. UPDATE: Steve Benen has more on McConnell at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast here — McConnell trips over his own tax rhetoric : Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spoke to reporters at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast, and talked in some detail about why tax increases won’t be part of any bipartisan deal. Dave Weigel noted one argument, in particular, that stood out. “I, as you recall, negotiated in December an extension of current tax rates. They still had 59 Democrats and a 40-seat majority in the House when the vice president and I negotiated an extension of the current tax rates, and the president went around and said to do otherwise would be bad for the economy. Now, does anybody in this room think the economy is better now than it was in December? I don’t think so. So, look: Taxes aren’t going to be raised.” That sounded to me like an admission that the tax cut deal hadn’t worked — which meant extending Bush rates plus adding sweeteners didn’t work. And that wasn’t what many Republicans were saying in January, when early job numbers pointed to a possible recovery. I asked McConnell to expand on that: If keeping the Bush tax rates wasn’t helping the economy any, why would we expect keeping those rates, or lowering them, would lead to growth? “Well, if borrowing a trillion dollars in spending, largely on government, and over-regulating the economy, is good for the economy, we’d be in a boom time. So my view is: Quit doing what we’ve been doing. You certainly don’t want to raise taxes in the middle of the recession, which the president [agreed with] in December.” If we needed a reminder that Mitch McConnell has no idea what he’s talking about, this ought to do the trick. Read on…