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 after Romney was no longer active there ...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.