OK...Not the Best Day...But...

Gotta love roller coasters...er...political campaigns.  Just as Romney had been on a pretty sustained upswing, we have a series of rough days.

First, at the South Carolina debate on Monday, all the candidates were, of course, going after Romney...hard.  That's not new, but it seemed like Mitt was not quite prepared to handle a couple of the charges/issues.  In particular, he got challenged to release his 2011 tax returns.  I think tax returns for candidates typically should not be important, but the fact is candidates need to avoid appearing evasive or like they have anything to hide.  Fair or not, let's just say that entering the political arena I think you give up a lot of personal privacies the rest of us like to enjoy.  I say, get it out there and even though there will be headlines that may be negative at first, they can be responded to and run their course.  Again, I say this but am firmly of the opinion the tax returns change nothing about Romney's basic strengths and advantages as a presidential candidate.

Then Gingrich has tried to regain his footing and has done so to some degree.  Then we found out this morning that after officially certifying the Iowa caucus results, it turns out Santorum actually won by some 30 votes.  Again, either way pretty much a virtual tie, but still not great news for Romney in terms of perception.  Then today, Perry dropped out of the race and endorsed Gingrich, which along with Sarah Palin sort of suggesting the same gives Gingrich a possible boost.

So, what does it all mean?  In terms of the race in South Carolina, I think it likely tightens things up, though I'm still very hopeful and think that Romney should pull it through in the end.  In terms of the basic strengths and weaknesses of the remaining candidates, I think it means really nothing important.  However, I do think we've seen a couple of lines of attack against Romney that should be seriously and directly addressed by him and his campaign going forward.

He has been successful and relatively wealthy...that's not going to change but needs to be presented as the positive it is.  Don't we want someone effective and successful to help tackle our nation's problems?  And yet, we need to see more and ongoing evidence that Romney understands and can connect with a wide variety of people across the nation.  He needs to find effective ways to connect his work at Bain, SL Olympics, and Massachusetts with the broader story of America and what we need right now at this point in our history.  And I do think he needs to find more direct ways to connect with the underlying anxieties in the country about the direction Obama has been taking us.  We need to know how much better off we will be once a President Romney gets the chance to reverse the damage Obama has done and get us out of this paralyzed slide and back on the path to rapid growth.

Talk to family and friends today and tomorrow, let's push for a win on Saturday, and we'll go on from there.