There’s no doubt Mitt Romney has had a good couple weeks. He got the hold outs to finally agree that he is the Republican nominee. Now the RNC itself has said the race is over. And he’s had a perceptible tightening in the polls. But his push against “unfairness” he rolled out last night is just weak.
Just so we’re all getting it, Obama is campaigning on fairness and tax equity. So Romney is hauling off against ‘unfairness’. Get it?
Probably only barely since it’s so clumsy.
The list of unfairnesses are tailored for conservative voters — the unfairness of having to pay union dues, not have school vouchers, etc. If those are your issues, it’s a good message. If not, not, etc. But it doesn’t really play well rhetorically in a GOP context. And, more importantly, it just goes back to this weird pattern the Romney campaign has of trying to set up camp within the Obama campaign’s campaign narrative. That might have some snark power in the short run for your really diehard supporters. But it’s reactive and diminishes the following candidate. And that’s especially odd when Romney seems to be on a bit of a roll amid signs the economy may be hitting another rough patch.
