Eating Their Young

Earlier this year, in order to distract the American public from President Obama's dismal job performance, the Democrat attack machine castigated Romney over his leadership at Bain Capital,  But when Cory Booker, Democrat Mayor of Newark, NJ, defended Romney's performance at Bain Capital, he was forced by the Democrat consiglieries to walk back these comments within twenty-four hours.  Ditto for the Democrat governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick ... and even ... gasp ... Bill Clinton ... all with similar u-turns.

But, when Mitt Romney, criticized the State Department's previous day's embarrassing apology in dealing with the mob attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, he has once again came under the rabid harassment of the left-wing media.  And when he suffered a brief spat of stuttering when responding to the coordinated media strikes by reporters in his later-in-the-day press conference, his trashing was intensified.  (Of course, Obama has never has never had a spat of stuttering.)  Even more disturbing, instead of rallying around their candidate, a number of Republicans found it convenient to ding Romney ... in particular John Sununu (see: American Thinker Comments).  Ditto Republicans, Peter King and Peggy Noonan.

As opposed to supporting their party and their candidate, erudite Republicans (such as George Will) often try to earn their stripes and the favor of the Washington elite by eating their young.  I suppose that they often do this because, unlike the Democrat party, Republicans slake no vengeance on those who fall out of line.  Perhaps they should learn to do so?

Playing Defense

Rush Limbaugh spent almost his entire program today discussing how Mitt Romney should respond to all the salacious attacks that the Obama team is currently smearing him with.  Basically Rush's take was that, if you are on defense, you can't be on offense ... you can never move the ball down the field.  You should not respond to such dirty charges as seen in recent Democrat attack ads (such as Romney effectively killed Joe Soptic's wife because Bain Capital ... after Romney was no longer active there ... shut down GST Steel which caused Soptic to lose his job and health insurance ... which was the reason, five years later, that Soptic's wife died of breast cancer) because it just keeps these charges in the news cycle.

Now, I am not a political consultant ... nor do I play one on cable TV.  However, as I remember it, when Bill Clinton was under assault throughout his time on the national stage ... with a wide variety of charges from bimbo eruptions, to perjury charges, to the Whitewater scandal, to Monicagate, etc. etc. ... he responded using his rapid-response team with rabid attacks on his accusers (remember how Ken Starr was vilified?).  This certainly was effectively offensive defense ... and Clinton is generally attributed with being a consummate politician.  And recall what Rahm Emanuel (Obama's former junk-yard dog) has used as his political modus operandi?  "If they bring a knife, you bring a gun."

Would it sully Romney's pristine image if his team was as belligerent as Clinton's was ... or as Obama's is?  Probably ... however, I still do believe that Romney needs to go on offense with a rigorous defense of his reputation ... much like Clinton and his surrogates (James Carville, Paul Begala, Lanny Davis, George Stephanopolous, etc.) did all those twenty years ago.  Unfortunately, Romney seems to have only one surly cur on his side, John Sanunu.  He needs to surround himself with quite a few more offensive defenders ... ones the likes of Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter, and Chris Christie.

Inoculation Time

The conventional wisdom (whatever that means) says that Newt Gingrich (and maybe Rick Santorum) will now be coming after Mitt Romney with both gun barrels blazing in the ensuing Presidential race.  This media narrative results from the supposed effective negative ads that Romney's Super-PACs ran against Newt in Iowa.  Such attacks are believed to have sunk Newt's caucus chances there.  And Newt is just vindictive enough to try to turn the tables on Romney and spend every dime he can raise or borrow to slime this now-seeming frontrunner.

I think Mitt Romney should welcome this Gingrich vitriol and respond quickly to each and every charge (i.e., his dog riding on the car roof, Bain Capital layoffs in the companies it took over, Romneycare, etc.)  In effect, the more that Newt, Santorum, et alia throw at Mitt, the less negative surprises that The Barry will have to spend his billion-dollar war chest on ... when (and if) Mitt is his opponent when the real race begins  in the late summer.  (This theory is based on the assumption that voters will tire of hearing the same charges over and over again.)  This political tactic is know as "inoculation" and has been used effectively, particularly by Bill Clinton, in past elections.

But the important caveat is that Romney must respond quickly to all of these brickbats with convincing ripostes.  If he lets them stand and fester, then he will indeed be in deep sneakers.

As you may have guessed, I still believe that a Predident Romney is our best chance for curing our in extremis nation.

CAUTION!

If it came down to a election contest between Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama, I would without hesitation pull the "R" lever ... since I believe that four more years of The Barry would probably damage this country almost beyond repair.  However, I would prefer Mitt Romney instead of Newt Gingrich for no other reason than I believe that he can and will heal our economy.  At the moment all other considerations pale by comparison in my mind.

But recently Gingrich said that he would give the $1.4 million dollars back to Freddie Mac (money he got for his giving it "historical perspective" shortly before the sub-prime mortgage crisis) if Romney would give back the money that Bain Capital (Romney's former venture capital firm) got  from “bankrupting companies and laying off employees.”  Now, I have dealt with a few venture capitalists in my life time and I can't imagine that any of them has ever made an investment with the objective of bankrupting the company they just gave their money to.

This is nonsensical Newt.  So please stop playing fast and loose with such pejorative utterances (you too, Mitt).  And, if you do get the nomination, please erect a "Caution, Slow Down" sign between your fertile brain and your voice box.