Byron York is perplexed by what he perceives to be the glaring discrepancy between the Mitt Romney of the GOP primary season and the Mitt Romney who is the Republican Party\u2019s presumptive presidential nominee.<\/p>\n
Borrowing from the Star Wars <\/em>mythos, York refers to the first Mitt as \u201cthe Death Star.\u201d\u00a0 In the primaries, Romney spared neither expense nor opportunity to eviscerate his opponents.\u00a0 Though his ruthlessness vis-\u00e0-vis his rivals generally and Newt Gingrich particularly was off-putting to some of the party faithful, the optimists among them viewed it as a potentially promising sign of Romney\u2019s ability to reckon with \u201cthe Obama killing machine,\u201d as York puts it, that was waiting in the wings.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Thus far, however, the second Mitt has dashed these expectations.\u00a0York writes:<\/p>\n \u201cNow, the general election campaign is here, and the talk is of the Obama killing machine, not the Romney death star.\u00a0 By most accounts, the Romney campaign is not displaying the super-aggressive effectiveness it showed in the primaries.\u201d<\/p>\n York identifies five reasons to account for this seemingly enigmatic phenomenon.<\/p>\n The first pertains to what he summarily calls \u201cthe facts\u201d\u2014i.e. Romney\u2019s business record and taxes.\u00a0 Simply put, while these were not an issue with Republican voters, they do <\/em>matter with Democrats and independents.\u00a0 This,York thinks, explains the effectiveness of President Obama\u2019s relentless campaign against Romney\u2019s time at Bain Capital.<\/p>\n The second reason for the lackluster performance of the second Mitt is \u201cthe media.\u201d\u00a0 Even in this age of \u201cthe new media,\u201d the majority of the most influential media outlets remain under the dominance of Democratic-friendly journalists and commentators. So, while Romney had very little media scrutiny with which to contend during the primaries, he is bound to receive the lion\u2019s share of it now that he is the Republican presidential nominee.<\/p>\n Third, both Romney aides as well as some Democrats\u2014like James Carville\u2014believe that the pro-Obama SuperPACs have so far managed to more effectively direct the course of the campaign. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Fourth, campaign finance laws prevent Romney from spending one penny of the money that he has raised for the general election until the commencement of the Republican National Convention on August 27.\u00a0 Hence, Obama\u2014who didn\u2019t have any competitors in a primary race\u2014has been able to far and away outspend his rival.<\/p>\n The fifth and final reason that explains Romney\u2019s lack of aggressiveness is his \u201ccomplaining.\u201d\u00a0 The second Mitt ought to take the advice that the first Mitt offered to Newt Gingrich when the latter complained loudly about the negative attacks with which Mitt bombard him: \u201cJust take it and hit back harder\u2014that was the way they saw it,\u201d as York says.\u00a0 He concludes: \u201cRomney is far more self-controlled than Gingrich, but the effect is the same; he\u2019s whining about the other guy treating him badly.\u201d<\/p>\n York\u2019s analysis is not implausible, but, ultimately, it is wanting.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at reasons (1)-(5).<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s attacks against Romney\u2019s business record and taxes have not <\/em>been terribly effective at all.\u00a0 Granted, they have had Romney on the defensive, but the thing of it is, the former governor of Massachusetts has had no small measure of support from a number of the least likely people\u2014namely, Democrats<\/em>, and prominent <\/em>Democrats at that.\u00a0 From former President Bill Clinton to former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, to present Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to Newark Mayor Cory Booker, distinguished voices from the President\u2019s own party have publicly denounced his attacks against Bain Capital and Romney\u2019s record while presiding over it.<\/p>\n As for the media,York\u2019s judgment is not wide of the mark.\u00a0 Still, it overlooks the significant fact that even those who are otherwise Democratic sympathizers have taken their fellow partisans to task for the Bain Capital attacks.\u00a0 CNN\u2019s Candy Crawley and David Gergen are two examples.\u00a0 ABC\u2019s George Stephanopoulos is another.<\/p>\n For sure, there is anything but a level playing field for Republicans and Democrats when it comes to media coverage.\u00a0 However, if <\/em>media hostility toward Romney is a factor at all in accounting for his tame treatment of Obama, it shouldn\u2019t be exaggerated. As the aforementioned examples establish, reasonably fair coverage is not impossible for a Republican to secure.<\/p>\n Maybe the Obama SuperPACs have been more \u201ceffective\u201d than the Romney SuperPACs and maybe they haven\u2019t been.\u00a0 But if they have been, asYorkapparently believes, then this raises but another question: Why?\u00a0 To this question, we will turn momentarily.<\/p>\n That Obama is outspending Romney in some places due to the restrictions that campaign finance laws impose upon the latter needn\u2019t have anything to do with the problem under discussion\u2014i.e. Romney\u2019s lack of aggression.<\/p>\n First of all, though money is important in a campaign, as we saw in the 2008 GOP primaries, the guy with the most money\u2014in that case, Romney\u2014can\u2019t always buy the prize.<\/p>\n Second, if it is Romney\u2019s lack of aggression that we seek to explain, then it doesn\u2019t matter who is spending what.\u00a0 The real question should be: what<\/em> is Romney doing with the money that he is<\/em> spending?<\/p>\n Finally, Romney\u2019s \u201ccomplaining\u201d or \u201cwhining\u201d is irrelevant.\u00a0<\/p>\n For one, all politicians tend to cry foul when they are being assaulted by their opponents. In doing so, they hope to present themselves as the good guys and their attackers as the bad guys.\u00a0 Furthermore, no one cares whether Romney is complaining or not. People no more care about this than they would care that he is spending his time playing chess or swimming.\u00a0<\/p>\n What they care about is that he is not <\/em>spending his time hitting Obama as forcefully as Obama has been hitting him.<\/p>\n So, we are back to square one.<\/p>\n But, in all honesty, to some of us, there is nothing in the least mysterious about Romney\u2019s refusal to unleash the same fury on Obama that he released on his fellow Republicans.\u00a0<\/p>\n We may call it the John McCain Syndrome (JMS).<\/p>\n Recall that the same things that York, myself, and others now say about Romney were said four years ago about 2008 Republican nominee, McCain: the Arizona Senator could be ruthless, even contemptible, toward other Republicans, but toward Democrats, especially<\/em> his opponent, Senator Obama, he was remarkably restrained, even unduly deferential at times.<\/p>\n Yet McCain\u2019s rival then is Romney\u2019s rival now.\u00a0<\/p>\n To put it more clearly, then as now, it is a black <\/em>politician against whom Republicans have to do battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2008, it was a young black man who aspired to be the country\u2019s \u201cfirst black president.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2012, it is <\/em>America\u2019s \u201cfirst black president.\u201d<\/p>\n And it is a black politician who has proven himself time and time again eager to play the race card in order to advance his interests.<\/p>\n Does Byron York, or any American who has been alive longer than five minutes, genuinely think that the paralyzing fear of being accused of \u201cracism\u201d doesn\u2019t figure substantially in explaining Romney\u2019s and the Republicans\u2019 aversion to coming at Obama with guns blazing?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n A couple of months ago there was some talk about a Romney SuperPAC that was considering reintroducing America to Obama\u2019s one-time \u201cspiritual mentor,\u201d as Obama characterized his pastor of over twenty years, Jeremiah Wright.\u00a0 In light of the fact that this issue, courtesy of the media and McCain, was never explored to the extent that it should have been, and the fact that it now assumes new significance in view of Obama\u2019s conduct since assuming the office of the presidency, the ad would have been highly germane to this election.<\/p>\n But as McCain ran from the topic four years ago, so too was Romney quick to renounce just the possibility of such an advertisement.<\/p>\n Until Romney relieves himself of the fear of being branded with the dreaded \u201cR\u201d word, he will not display the same aggression that he exhibited during the primaries.<\/p>\n This <\/em>is what is missing fromYork\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n originally published at American Thinker<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Byron York is perplexed by what he perceives to be the glaring discrepancy between the Mitt Romney of the GOP primary season and the Mitt Romney who is the Republican Party\u2019s presumptive presidential nominee. Borrowing from the Star Wars mythos, York refers to the first Mitt as \u201cthe Death Star.\u201d\u00a0 In the primaries, Romney spared…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n