Putting the race into perspective

Steven Huntley:

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Once the former Massachusetts governor locked up the nomination, the Obama campaign and the president’s surrogates launched an ugly and dishonest — even by the low standards of American politics — propaganda blitz to try to smear Romney. They called him a tax cheat, suggested he was guilty of a felony in document filings about the Bain Capital company he started and insinuated that Romney was responsible for the cancer death of the wife of a steel worker laid off by a plant Bain was trying to save years after Romney had left Bain.

And Obama is supposed to be the nice guy in this race! Time for a reality check.

The good news for Romney is that despite barrage after barrage of false and misleading attacks and diversions, he remains essentially tied in national polling.

So by all means let Romney, his wife Ann and others showcase his family, faith and good works in charity and personal life. And highlight his record of success in business — everyone has heard of Staples, the firm Bain helped start — and in public life — his rescue of the 2000 Salt Lake Olympics from scandal and financial ruin.

As Republicans and Romney cast for ways to tell his personal story, they should keep the focus on his tax reform and energy proposals that hold the promise of reviving the economy. Obama may have a likability edge, but he has no new ideas, only a record of failure. 

That’s the real choice in this election — between Romney’s success and job-creating ideas for the future and Obama’s failure and more of the same failed policies.

I find Romney's personality much easier to like at this point.  Obama is not what I consider a nice guy and he has been incompetent as President.  He just lacks basic leadership skills.  He does not know how to work with people to achieve compromise.  His only "compromise" so far has been the disastrous sequester which was the results of his inability to face up to the problems of the debt crisis.