Second Verse, Same as the First

If the Republicans tried (and sometimes you wonder if they are), they couldn’t have scripted a better mud fight to the benefit of Barack Obama thus far. From having most of the so-called debates “moderated” by the leftist MSM which takes great sport in belittling them, to carving each other up in ads and speeches, to magnified gaffes, the candidates have long since taken their collective eyes off the mission—to defeat Obama at any cost.

When Mitt Romney compares his firings at Bain Capital to Obama’s takeover of General Motors, you know that the Republicans’ default defensive posture has returned in spades. Perhaps it never went away, but was only hiding momentarily in the early debates when the candidates were actually solidified in their attacks on Obama. As Rush has stated a million times, no one ever wins by playing defense. Newt Gingrich and, to an extent, the other non-Romney candidates share in this guilt by unwittingly defaming capitalism when they rip Romney for his supposed scorched-earth tactics at Bain. Putting capitalism on the defensive in the midst of an economic malaise is just not smart politics, no matter what point you’re trying to prove.

For those who would say that the debates have served a useful purpose in “toughening” up the eventual nominee to face Obama’s inevitable dirty tricks, I say: poppycock. In my opinion, they have done just the opposite—providing rich targets of opportunity for the Obama forces to use in their ad campaign. With a projected billion bucks to throw around, expect them to give Gingrich, Paul, and others a lot of face time in ads this fall (assuming that Romney is the nominee) doing Obama’s dirty work for him. And all Obama will have to do on the campaign trail in that staccato voice of his is say, “See? See? Even his own party condemns what Romney has done!” He won’t even need his teleprompter to make that argument.

The only silver lining at this point is that it’s still early in the primary season, and Romney hasn’t sewn this thing up by any means, yet. However, if anyone is going to beat him, they’re going to have to run mistake-free from this point on—and with the MSM doing everything they can to play gotcha, that’s next to impossible. I’d give them about the same odds as Wily Coyote actually catching and feasting on the Roadrunner. If I’m wrong, I’ll gladly eat some crow.