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It's fair to conclude that the Romney team is in a state of "heightened concern." Running a negative ad against McCain in NH after promising to put out their positive closing message suggests they are equally if not more concerned about a NH loss than an Iowa upset. If you caught Romney on John Gibson or on Hannity and Colmes last night you saw a candidate struggling to escape generalities and relying on rather cliched set phrases. On Today he invoked Reagan as an example of a candidate nonexperienced in foreign affairs. But of course, Reagan had written and given speeches for years on Communism-- the equivalent of writing and speechifying for years on Islamic terrorism. McCain is fighting back, smartly putting out email briefings debunking Romney's ad and citing Romney's own shortcomings on immigration and tax cuts. But the real issue for Romney, and for Huckabee, is that voters got a wake up call yesterday. This is no time for a candidate operating on 3X5 notecards who has never met with world leaders, never questioned the joint chiefs, never seen a Pentagon budget and never dealt with skittish allies. The ground has shifted and Romney's surrogates are right to be worried.

topics:
Islam, Communism, Immigration