Romney’s Challenge

Mike Allen: “As the presidential campaigns gingerly navigate the post-landfall environment, Mitt Romney has the more awkward and hazardous path. President Obama has been doing his day job, has a natural platform and can command a national audience at any moment. Romney, who felt he was surfing a wave of momentum, has to find a way to keep campaigning in states that weren’t affected, without looking cheap or opportunistic. At 11 a.m., per Romney’s schedule, he ‘will attend a storm relief event at the James S. Trent Arena in Kettering, Ohio, where he will be joined by Richard Petty and Randy Owen.’ This is risky business. If Romney is as capable of presidential mien as his advisers think, it will show. The downside could be devastating.”

“Romney has to avoid anything reminiscent of one of the campaign’s most cringe-worthy moments, when Paul Ryan breezed through a soup kitchen in Youngstown, Ohio, after the homeless patrons had left for the morning, put on a crispy-white apron and scrubbed a pot that appeared to the pool to already be clean. (Charity officials later clarified that it was dirty.) Romney has the chance to draw on his years as a Mormon bishop to show he understands tough times, and knows how to serve solemnly. But he has to resist obvious photo-opps.”