Take the Gloves Off, Governor Romney

Folks, I have a lot of respect for Mitt Romney.  I respect his judgment, his demeanor, his composure and his experience.  He has to this point, run a fairly good campaign, and he is in a good position to win  He is running on his opponent's record, something his opponent finds increasingly difficult to defend.  And so, the Obama Camp turns to reliable character assassination, lies and innuendo as their main lines of attack.  I am not writing to complain about these tactics.  They are part of the game and they are to be expected.  But they MUST be answered.  And they must be answered aggressively.

Some specifics follow:

1.  Romney's tax plan is being savaged by the President, as decreasing taxes on the wealthy by raising taxes on everyone else.  If this isn't true, Romney needs to say so, vocally, and through every surrogate he has.  So far...crickets.

2.  The Harry Reid "he didn't pay taxes for 10 years" line.  Keep tying this to the Obama Campaign.  Do not let up.

3.  Bain--he needs to put together 5 convincing minutes on the roll of private equity in our economy that makes sense to ordinary citizens, and he needs to say this as often as possible.

4.  Ideology--Romney needs to HAMMER at the President as an ideologue whose ideology failed everywhere else and is failing here.  His commercials should be a continuous reel of the literally scores of left of center things he's said as President and before, and we should be reminded that they weren't gaffes, they were what he believes. 

5.  Experience and Accomplishments--Romney must relentlessly remind us that we hired the wrong guy, on a flier.  That we can be excused for doing so, because it was tough times, and he gave a pretty speech.  Now is different.  We are heading toward an abyss and we cannot afford to get it wrong again.  He must be unrelenting about the President's lack of any real accomplishments before running for Senate.  That he is a man of the public dole, and not of private enterprise.

6.  He must pick Condi Rice as his VP.  She must accept.  He must say directly to the Conservative Base that THIS is how I will get more votes than the other guy, and this is the way we will make progress toward our common goals.  If George Bush has to make this case to Condi, so be it.

7.  Character and conduct--the President should continue to be hammered for his all golfing/no meeting approach to the economy.  Romney should begin to tie his WORK HABITS to what we saw from the CHOOM GANG Obama in his early years.  The Leopard has not changed his spots.  We need someone who knows how to put in a full day's work, every day. 

This approach will not be pretty, and it will require the Candidate--himself--to get a little dirty.  Voters want to see that he's got a little starch in his shorts.  They want to see the guy who came out of South Carolina and blitzed Newt Gingrich.  That is what is required, and it is time to get busy.