I've got a few thoughts on the Romney tape debacle.
1. It's too early to determine whether Romney has done himself fatal harm.
2. Obama's reaction to Romney's self-inflicted wound has been understated and pitch-perfect.
3. Fox News showed how desperately dipsy they are by dredging up some 1998 tape in which Obama made some mention of "income redistribution" and gave it equal billing with Romney's shooting himself in the foot, face, and groin on the tape.
4. There is no great love for Romney by anybody in the Republican party. If he screws up badly again in the next week, it's conceivable that eight or ten of the big money people would make a move to force him out and convene a meeting of the Republican National Committee to nominate a replacement ticket, which would be Huckabee-Ryan. You got a better guess?
5. Notwithstanding all the above, Romney could still win by going hard, ugly, and unapologetically right.
6. Voting starts September 27 in Iowa, and October 2 in Ohio. Obama has to bank an insurmountable early lead in early voting states to protect against voter ID and other shrink-the-vote stuff. Potential volunteers take note.
7. Romney is completely boxed in, and cannot apologize for anything he said at the fundraiser for a couple of reasons. First, he's written a tough-guy book entitled, "No Apology." Second, the loudmouth gasbags on the right like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh will trash him if he does.
8. I would be willing to bet that there were more people at that $50,000 per person fundraiser that paid no federal income taxes in one of the last three years than there were veterans.
9. I hate to tempt fate by putting Nancy Pelosi's quote up as Quote of the Day. She is, however, a favorite of mine because she drives the far right batty and she's a winner and not a whiner.
10. Romney's berating of those, who because of low income, pay no federal income taxes, would seem to open the door to more probing of Mitt's taxes over the years. Let the questioning begin. More on that before the first debate Oct. 3.
Comments are welcome at tomc[at]wednesdayswars[dot]com. Name and town if you wish to opine. Comments will be addressed in subsequent posts.