With Mitt Romney's campaign getting hit by the perfect storm of low likeability, non-stop foreign policy gaffes, and video of him insulting half of America, Republican leaders and pundits know exactly what it is their candidate needs to turn all of his problems around and lead the party to victory.
He's got to quit being such a warm, affectionate guy and get really tough. Downright mean. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
"Mitt Romney in particular will have to speak up... It's not enough to float like a butterfly. You have to sting like a bee. No sting, no victory."
-- William Kristol
"He needs to get severely aggressive."
-- Sarah Palin
Mitt Romney needs "more fight."
-- Rupert Murdoch
"You got to use those buzz words. You got to say socialist, you got to do that to get people's attention."
-- Bill O'Reilly
If Republicans "don't get tough, they're not going to win this."
-- Donald Trump
There's the strategy. It's so clear. And easy. To stop the bleeding, Mitt Romney has to take the gloves off. Go to the mat, Fredo. Let the public finally know, finally understand what a truly bad person President Barack Obama is. Because once they learn how dangerous he is, Americans will abandon him in droves.
That's what Republicans need. Without doing it, Republicans say, they will lose.
And that, too, unfortunately for Republicans, is the Insurmountable Problem that Mitt Romney faces. In fact, it's been the little-recognized Insurmountable Problem the GOP has faced since before the campaign season even started.
Apparently, you see, crack Republican experts don't understand that All They Have Been Doing for the past five years is trying to get the public to understand what a truly evil person President Barack Obama is. Since before he was even president.
"I do know this, he's not an American. He's just not an American."
-- Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO)
Barack Obama is "the most dangerous president" and "anti-American."
-- Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
"Barack Obama [has] turned the United States into a pro-homosexual regime and it's just despicable."
-- Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) President Peter LaBarbera
"We have to put an end to this Barack Obama presidency before it puts an end to our way of life in America."
-- Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus
"I have doubts that it is really his real birth certificate."
-- Rep. Vicki Hartzler (R-MO)
"I can't say categorically that [Obama is not Muslim]"
-- Evangelist Franklin Graham
President Obama pursues an "outrageously anti-American" policy.
-- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists."
-- former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK)
Was that "a terrorist fist jab?"
-- Fox News host E.D. Hill, on Barack Obama greeting his wife
The President has "radical Islamic policies."
-- Alice Stewart, press secretary for Rick Santorum (later claiming she misspoke)
"There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama's attention in a negative way."
-- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
"I don't think we've seen in the history of this country the kind of attack on religious freedom we've seen in Barack Obama."
-- Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney (R-MA)
President Obama "should be tried for treason."
-- woman at Cleveland town hall meeting to Mitt Romney, who stays silent.
"Am ppl r not stupid as this x prof of con law."
-- Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA)
"You lie!"
- Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)
"The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his [racist] influence on Barack Obama."
-- independently-financed Republican proposal for ad campaign
"You did not once during the 2008 campaign ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide."
-- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
And Republicans now want Mitt Romney to finally talk tough??
Seriously?
From John McCain derisively dismissing Mr. Obama as "That one!" in the 2008 presidential debates through Republicans claiming that Obama "death panels" want to literally kill the elderly, Republicans have not stopped spinning themselves into a whirling dervish of manic hatred.
If Republicans believe that Mitt Romney's one hope is to get tough, that he needs more fight, that he has to get severely aggressive and call President Obama a socialist... well... well, here's the thing --
Been there, done that. It hasn't worked. Americans elected him anyway. And they still, personally like him. Despite being decried for five years as a socialist, Nazi, Muslim, anti-American, Kenyan traitor, a CNN poll last week showed the president has a 57 percent likability rating among Americans, compared to just 42 percent against. And he's up 7 points in the polls.
And Republican intelligentsia want Mitt Romney to finally "speak up" and "sting like a bee"??! They've been pummeling Barack Obama with nuclear bombs for five years. A bee-sting would be like a blessed relief.
And when Mitt Romney did try to get "tough" last week, and criticized the president during a national tragedy, he was not only slammed by Democrats and diplomats, but by Republicans, as well, among them Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Peggy Noonan, Bill O'Reilly and more. Words like "craven," "ham-handed," "disgraceful," "offensive" and "irresponsible."
Mark Twain tells a story about a woman feeling sick, and he cheerfully offered her the same health advice he'd recently gotten. He said she should give up smoking, drinking and swearing, and therefore healthy living would cure her. Unfortunately, the woman explained that she didn't smoke, drink and swear. Twain thought a moment, and finally said, "There you have it! She was a sinking ship with no ballast to throw overboard."
Panicking Republicans have come to the point where their experts are saying that their candidate has only one option. That with a candidate who only 31 percent of Americans like, who is unwilling to discuss specifics of his proposals, has chosen to hide his tax returns, is without foreign policy experience, can't criticize affordable healthcare because his Romneycare is the same, can't use his vice presidential candidate's budget plan because of the attention it brings to ending Medicare, can't address abortion because of his vice presidential candidate's direct ties to Todd Akin and "legitimate rape," and who is falling in the polls -- all their candidate has left is to finally start saying tough, aggressive, stinging things about Barack Obama.
This is an Insurmountable Problem.
Because if that's what Mitt Romney must do to stay afloat, Republicans have already shot their wad. His campaign is a sinking ship with no ballast to throw overboard.