Michael Crowley: “The current debate is really about setting battle lines for the
campaign. Above all, the Obama team is opportunistically — but also
cleverly — shaping the political debate around a subject that’s good for
them (heartless capitalism) instead of the one that’s good for Romney
(the terrible economy). Chicago is trying to define Romney — and Bain, a
company most Americans don’t really understand — on their own terms.”
“They’re also after something deeper. Attacking Bain, and Romney’s candor about his role there, is a way of
defining the Republican’s character. Modern Democrats often bemoan the
GOP’s alleged advantage in mounting character attacks. They haven’t
forgotten the way the Swift Boating of John Kerry (unfairly) undermined
Kerry’s credibility and patriotism, and the flip-flopping windsurfer
attacks that followed. This week’s Bain offensive has partly been aimed
at making Romney look slippery about a business record allegedly defined
by selfishness and greed.”
The strategy: “Keep the target on the defensive, define the political conversation, and
raise constant new ‘questions’ that can only be answered by the release
of documents — in 2004, Kerry’s military records; in this case, Romney’s
back tax returns — that promise to be complicated, hard to interpret and
sure to open the door to still more questions.”
