Maybe this will be the time in Romney's campaign that will be designated "the end of Romney's hopes for the presidency."
Maybe not. His statements following the news about the raid on the Benghazi embassy would seem to have cooked the candidate's already embattled goose. At some point, one of the two candidates will seem to lose favor with the media and then, well, it's just a trudge up to the day of the election (where Republican efforts to skew the vote could save that damn goose).
Fox News poll: Obama leads by five, 48-43, among likely voters, though that’s within the margin of error.
Two noteworthy tidbits: The shift was driven by a big swing towards Obama among independents. And Romney only leads by 12 among whites — far short of the advantage he needs. ...Greg Sargent
Sargent also points to these astute comments from David Adkins at Digby's:
The Romney campaign understands this: it cannot hit the President too hard, or voters who like Obama personally and still feel this "relationship" with him will themselves be insulted. That's why the campaign itself and Karl Rove are softpedaling their attacks. But they can't control their surrogates and the angry hysteria of their conservative media empire and its rabid base. That in turn is damaging Mitt Romney's chances of wooing persuadable voters. More than that, Mitt Romney's message of "you're on your own" isn't exactly a warm, fuzzy or likeable start for a man attempting to win the heart of a person in a teetering but committed relationship. It's a trap from which Romney and his team have a difficult time escaping, and it shows.
The Obama campaign, meanwhile, knows that to preserve the President's station requires reminding the American people of the commitment they have made not just to him but to one another. It's a message that ties in naturally with progressive economic and social values, and it's a message that unites and binds voters against the predation of the other side's heartless Lotharios. ...Hullabaloo
Kevin Drum gets inside the unexpectedly careful planning that went into Romney's most recent attacks on the president -- planning that led to disaster. "Serious misjudgment" for a start and then:
This was no late-night, one-person screwup that Romney then felt he had to stand behind. It was a carefully calculated statement drafted by Romney's entire team and then signed off on by Romney himself. Even with his whole staff beavering away on this, apparently not a single person pointed out that (a) they didn't have their facts straight, (b) it might be appropriate to wait a little while before scoring cheap political points, and (c) accusing the president of the United States of "sympathizing" with embassy attackers was beyond the pale.
Alternatively, someone did point this stuff out and got voted down. I'm not sure which is worse. ...Kevin Drum, MoJo
Goose cooked? Or "downward spiral"? Choose your metaphor. Either way, Romney's got trouble.
New York's John Heilemann appeared on Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss Romney's wobbly standing after the partisan attack. "What they saw across the ideological spectrum today was desperation," Heilemann said, adding that the aftermath is dangerous, creating a "downward spiral" that can be damaging to fund-raising, standing with voters, and standing with the press. ...Daily Intel
