Shot From Both Sides: The Left Targets Mitt Romney In Florida

The DNC and labor unions (public and private) are apparently running a ton of anti-Mitt advertising in Florida this week. The plan seems to be to "take out" Mitt so that the more target-rich Newt Gingrich becomes the nominee. Hugh Hewitt lays out the dastardly details:

This reporting by Scott Powers in the Orlando Sentinel scoops the New York Times, the Washington Post and Politico by pulling together in one place and charting the obvious implications of Team Obama's assault on Mitt Romney in Florida. 

Obama is trying to prevent Romney's nomination: 

The Democrats are targeting Mitt Romney as if he were already the Republican nominee running against President Barack Obama, with campaign ads, Internet videos, daily news conferences and dozens of news releases attacking the former Massachusetts governor.

Traditional Democratic partners are jumping in, too. Both the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' and Service Employees International Union's political-action committees are running their own TV commercials in Florida this week — attacking Romney. 

Gingrich and the other two Republican candidates, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas U.S.Rep. Ron Paul, are being all but ignored by the DNC and its allies. 

Read the whole thing.

The Chicago Rules at work.  Obama fears Romney so he is trying to eliminate him early.  In the old days it would be called a "dirty trick," but MSM loves the president and won't criticize his operation.   

And it is his operation.  The president has had to approve of this attempt by the Yankees to get the Red Sox eliminated by sending players and cash to Tampa Bay in the last week of the season.  

Hewitt declares this to be "cheating," and he's probably right, but there are no refs or red cards in politics, so no one is going to give a damn.

This isn't cheating. It's a test, and it's a test Mitt Romney has to pass or he really has no business being the nominee. News flash: the DNC and unions will be running ads against Romney sometime in the calendar year 2012. These ads will not be flattering. They will probably look like that dumb (but effective!) Gingrich Bain movie: full of quavering-voiced old folks who lost their jobs when Big Bad 15% Tax Rate Mitt blew into town. Mitt has to be able to defend himself forcefully, simply has to. Complaining about "Chicago-style politics" isn't going to cut it.

Unfortunately, what we've been learning is that Mitt can't even adequately defend himself from attacks on his business record and tax returns from the right, let alone the left. Oh, he gets off some good lines in speeches and debates. He even manages to come up with the sort of business friendly sound bite (corporations are people) that drive liberals crazy. But, most of the time, he doesn't do much at all to blunt these attacks. Is it really that hard to explain that, no, I don't pay a 15% tax rate, and that I have already paid the full 35% corporate rate when those investments made their $$? I don't think so, but Mitt sure has had trouble fitting that on to a 3X5 card.

Not only that, is Romney out of options and/or money? The Democrat ad buy amounts to about $800,000. NewtPAC (or whatever) is spending $5 million in Florida. Romney can't match this with some commercials of his own? This is why businesspeople often make lousy candidates. Romney could buy and sell Obama, Gingrich, Santorum, and Paul five times over, but at least the (shudder) professional politicians wouldn't have fallen into a trap this obvious.