The American Spectator

Earlier this week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign started playing defense. In a story printed in the Politico, a new Washington publication and online operation, Romney’s campaign put out the word that the campaign’s “burn rate” (spending) was going to be high, and that Romney was going to focus on issues related to saving the American family.

The burn rate discussion is interesting, because word is, Romney is definitely spending money like there is no tomorrow, and in his case, that could certainly be the case given his continued low standing in national polls.

According to media consultants who monitor such things, Romney is buying up radio and TV ad time in Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Maine, Georgia and South Carolina. Such buys are unheard of at this point in the campaign.

The fact that Romney is apparently tweaking his message, moving toward “family” issues, is also interesting, particularly since it puts him in the position of parroting one of his competitor’s longstanding issues. Sen. Sam Brownback has been running on a platform of saving the family from a culture of death and depravity for months. Suddenly Romney has discovered it?

Apparently he’s serious. According to a report in Tuesday’s Greenville, S.C. paper, two of Romney’s sons and a campaign adviser attended a Brownback event last Monday. We hope Mitt’s boys were taking notes.