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
