Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Romney's bad week continues

^{Visual source: Newseum}

So many stories, so little time...

Maureen Dowd:  

It's hard for the haters to get traction when the president and his wife are looking so all-American, smooching for the 'kiss cam' at the U.S. vs. Brazil basketball game here Monday night, as the lovely Malia excitedly looked on.

Campaigning Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Romney called Obama's course as president 'extraordinarily foreign.' But it is the Mitt-bot who keeps getting caught doing things that seem strangely outside the norm to most Americans.

Americans have been trained to be wary of Swiss bank accounts and tax shelters in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Guys who have those in the movies are always shady and greedy.

Chris Cillizza:

'Perception is becoming Romney's reality and these issues have now risen above mere distractions,' said John Weaver, a Republican consultant and former senior adviser to Sen. John McCain's (R) 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns. 'The President has had the worst three months of any incumbent, due to the economy, since George H.W. Bush in 1992, and yet Romney has lost traction among key demographic groups in the vital swing states. He has got to get this behind him or he's going to face summer definition ala [Bob] Dole and [John] Kerry. '

And Michael Dukakis.

The Guardian:

Mitt Romney's struggles to define himself in the wake of Bain Capital controversy raise 'wimp factor' tag

That would be the kiss of death, wouldn't it? And yet...

Michael Tomasky:

Who, in this context, is Mitt Romney? An ex-governor who can't discuss his record, and an ex-capitalist who ... is getting close to the point where he can't discuss his record. And who has been afraid for two years, or more, lest he offend Rush Limbaugh and Fox. This is not his Republican Party. It's theirs. And Romney has given us no reason to think that will change.

That's the thing. Romney doesn't have the guts to stand up to the whackos in his own party.

Paul Constant/Portland Mercury:

I can't imagine that the Romney campaign hasn't run the public-relations calculations on these tax returns. And if they've run the calculations and they're stonewalling on releasing the returns, that means that whatever is in these returns is a campaign-ending issue. So now they're betting that the imagination of the American public isn't as terrible as the truth of what's in these returns. That's a risky bet.

Sam Stein:

Democrats have entered the go-for-the-jugular stage of the presidential race, with President Barack Obama's campaign, the Democratic National Committee and an allied opposition research group all releasing videos Tuesday attacking Mitt Romney for his refusal to release more tax returns.

Timothy Egan:

The pictures of Romney and his fellow suits at Bain Capital ravenously stuffing bills in their mouths and pockets is repulsive for the same reason that almost two-thirds of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Romney surrogate Donald Trump.

This is as much about crass warfare as class warfare. The Romney who made fun of Nascar fans in see-through plastic rain slickers or insulted the small-town cookie makers is the person Mike Huckabee was referring to when he said voters don't want their candidate 'to look like the guy who laid them off.' A plutocrat should never preen.

Conservative John Podhoretz:

Odd that a man who wrote a book titled 'No Apology' would spend days and days demanding an apology from his rival. Yet that's just what Mitt Romney has been doing, in a spectacularly wrongheaded approach to the attacks on his tenure at Bain Capital by President Obama and his campaign.

The problem with demanding an apology is that the most effective response is a pretty simple one, and Obama gave it: 'No.'

Once the 'no' is delivered, then what can Romney do? Keep demanding one?

It was pure rope-a-dope. Obama's surrogates attacked unfairly and thereby drew an irate Romney demand for an apology. Then Obama threw him by refusing.

HuffPost:

But for the time being, the "Ragin' Cajun," who helped Bill Clinton win the White House twice, said Team Obama is right to focus on pushing Mitt Romney to disclose more than one year of his federal tax returns.

"What campaign wouldn't do what they're doing now?" Carville asked. "One year of the returns produced this kind of flood of stories. What will a bunch of years of returns do?"

Tuesday's flailing attack on the president by Romney surrogate John Sununu, former governor of New Hampshire, shows the tax return issue has unsettled the Romney camp, Carville said. "It's giving them fits."