Governor Romney Does It Again

The Republican Party is aflame today with many of the leading Conservatives attacking both Romney and the campaign he is running.

Between the debacle over his ill timed and inaccurate response to the Libyan and Egyptian embassy attacks last week to this hidden videotape where he used words such as entitled to disdain what they typical Obama voter Mitt is struggling.

Noonan, Scarborough, Kristol, and The Wall Street Journal all have heavily criticized the campaign and Romney himself.

No election is over until it is over and with three debates scheduled there is opportunity for a change in the electorate but signals out of the Romney campaign show that the campaign is soon approaching a point of no return. The public poll numbers are bad, the internal polling numbers of the campaigns are even worse for Romney. We hear rumors that were it not for the devastating effect it would have on the overall perception of the campaign that the Romney forces would pull out of Ohio. Most will tell you that without Ohio Republicans cannot win.

Something else we heard today is this. Last night was the first time since last Friday that Mitt Romney appeared in front of, in the same building with, actual voters. For all the discussion that Obama does not love the art of politics, of campaigning, where has Romney been.

Since the terrible videotape has emerged Monday there has been a general consensus that Romney must now release his tax returns. He must, the thinking goes, show that he is not part of the forty seven percent of people that pay no income taxes. I think it is likely that Romney paid taxes each year, but at this point with everything going against him if he truly wants to win this race he has to come clean.

I have a different take on this. I think, that everything we are seeing in this race in the last couple of weeks shows a candidate that regrets where he is. I think Mitt Romney will under no circumstances release his tax returns. I believe that he has come to the conclusion that he is not going to win. He might justify that in many ways to himself but I think it is a huge hurdle for him to jump that he might well not be willing to pursue. No, I think that he will not release his tax returns and until and unless he does, it is a reflection of the fact that Mitt Romney's skin in the game is minimal.

And lets remember this. If you thought the internal strife on the right was extreme after McCain/Palin you have not seen anything yet. Romney and his terrible campaign might well signal the end of the Republican party as we know it.