I thought the Romney team was supposed to be so brilliant; evidently they’re not. The following is from respected veteran pollster Charlie Cook:
Mitt Romney’s campaign has to move fast to define the candidate for voters before President Obama does it first.
If President Obama’s campaign machine can define Mitt Romney before his own campaign even tries, my bet is Obama wins reelection.It seems the Romney campaign believes that any day or dollar spent talking about anything other than the economy is a day or dollar wasted. Unquestionably, the economy’s state and direction, as well as voters’ perceptions on Obama’s handling of it—are important. Obama’s approval ratings on the subject are awful. […] Voters seem quite willing to fire Obama as a result.
A willingness to fire the president, however, is only one step. Voters also have to be willing to hire Romney.