Did Obama Engage Romney Too Early?

First Read: “From our coverage of past presidential campaigns, Republicans have always been better — and more comfortable — when it comes to hand-to-hand political combat. Exhibit A: Some of the Democratic handwringing we saw over the past two weeks about whether the attacks on Bain Capital are fair. And here’s Exhibit B: More handwringing about whether President Obama has engaged too early in the campaign. The handwringing is mostly taking place in the Acela corridor by folks that haven’t seen any polling data in the industrial Midwestern states or any focus groups, at least when it comes to Bain.”

“The more intriguing debate folks will have in December is about how quickly and sharply the president decided to personally attack Romney. He could have easily decided to stay above the fray for longer, but the decision was made they couldn’t do that. Team Obama will argue, they needed to fire up their own base and running AGAINST someone helps fire them up faster than simply asking them to help re-elect the president. So they may have had no choice but to engage earlier than planned simply to get their own base motivated. Still, hand wring all you want. The problem, though is that the toothpaste is already out of the tube.