First Thoughts: Romney's brutal last three weeks

[Stuckinthebush]

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/18/13937855-first-thoughts-romneys-brutal-last-three-weeks?lite

"All campaigns have their ups and downs, but the last three weeks for Mitt Romney have been about as brutal as we can remember for any presidential candidate, especially this close to the election. First, the biggest speech of Romney’s life got overshadowed by the Clint Eastwood stunt. Then came President Obama’s significant bounce in the polls after the two political conventions. After that, Romney found himself on the defensive for his reaction to embassy attacks in Egypt and Libya. Next, Politico reported about infighting and disorganization inside the Romney campaign. Finally, all of these events were capped off yesterday by the surreptitiously recorded video of Romney -- provided to the liberal magazine Mother Jones and later to NBC News -- telling wealthy donors that “47%” of the country “who are dependent on government” and “who believe they are victims” will vote for Obama no matter what. "

-snip-

"The only recent presidential candidates we can remember having as rough of a stretch as Romney is right now -- so close to the election -- were John Kerry’s tough August (the Swift Boat campaign), John McCain’s difficult mid-September to mid-October (Lehman’s collapse, Palin going rogue), and Howard Dean right before and after the Iowa caucuses (his criticism of the caucus system, the Dean scream). Of course, Barack Obama had his own rough period (Jeremiah Wright, clinging to guns and religion), but those happened in March and April, giving him plenty of time to recover for the general election. But don’t think Obama didn’t pay a price in the primaries for those comments; he lost the Pennsylvania primary, and lost later primaries by even BIGGER margins (see West Virginia and Kentucky). Which brings us back to Romney: Timing is everything in politics. Had Obama’s comments come out in September, do you think he would have won Pennsylvania by double digits in the general?"



EDIT: Changed the title to match the title of the article