| thismeintiel said:
And I'm sure the people on the left thought all those other attacks against Romney would have worked, as well. The fact is, people on the right think it will have no affect, while people on the left think it will be the end of Romney. |
You're missing the point. You're over-estimating how much people - even those who vote GOP but aren't close followers of politics - knwo about Romney. Romney as a candidate can still be defined as he's "new", at least to most voters. Obama is NOT new. He's a knwonw quantity at this point.
And if you look closely, you'll see plenty of conservative critics of Romney, particularly in four areas: 1. Mormonism, 2. tax returns, 3. reliability/credibility (particularly in conservative cred.) and 4. likeability. The Bain issue plays heavily into the last two - -areas where he needs to improve even for his own base voter. That's a problem unlike many of the attacks on Obama, which, true or not, simply aren't an issue for his base. No enthusaistic progressive voter, for example, questions his citizenship or his patriotism or his integrity. The GOP attacks in those areas do every little beyond motivating the right-wing base to get fired up. They do little to move the middle. I'd argue Bain (and more importantly the "trust" issue that accompanies Bain) plays much more successfully to the middle ground (and there's more substance to it, as the story develops this week.)
And don't underestimate the importance of laying this groundwork early in the campaign. Obama has enough money to follow up, and I'd be willing ot bet they have something to add to this issue that they'll drop, oh, about a week after the GOP convention/VP introduction. It's sort of how these things go, historically. Lay the groundwork on the challenger early in key states, then hammer away nationwide the last 10 weeks at an expanded version of that issue.
Can't we all just get along and play our games in peace?
