The Bizarro World of Weird Willard

++It's been a long while since I have seen a candidate have such a miserable week. But, never fear, Uncle Karl Rove is here to say that be being even--I guess you must discount the polls--Willard is ahead and ,he says, Willard's message has dominated every news cycle. Willard's woes have dominated every news cycle but whatever message there has been has been lost with his campaign flopping around.

++The Romney campaign put out today a graphic to show how the challenger will pick up about 11 points from the convention and then zoom ahead. Unfortunately, history tells us that the expected bump is around five points like McCain got in 2008.

++The New York Daily News published an op-ed today saying that Romney just doesn't have the right stuff. They pointed to the fact that everyone now knows his Bain experience is tainted and that he chronically lies about President Obama. And, in addition, he simply can't take a punch.

++Conservatives led by Rush Limbaugh are calling for the heads of all the Romney staffers saying they are not ideological enough. Almost all the conservative talking heads are demanding their vice-presidential pick from Bobby Jindal to Paul Ryan. There is a concerted conservative crack-up that hasn't been public in many a year. 

++Even when Romney went out into the Iowa cornfields to inspect the damage of the drought it had to be with a multimillionaire farmer who owned 48 farms and had the most exotic house in Iowa.

++What tore it with the press today was Romney crying Uncle and saying he wanted a truce with the Obama campaign. He said he wanted to campaign on a higher level and that the Obama campaign should lay off his business experience at Bain and the issue of his taxes. It was unclear what he would give in return. By now President Obama has been accused of everything so what could Romney refrain from? 

++But the cry for a truce also raised questions about Romney's strength of character and whether he could handle a crisis. He has seen his primary calling card for this election, his career as a businessman ripped to shreds and his short stint as a governor neutralized by his own conservative backers in an uproar of any mention of his healthcare plan. This doesn't leave much since he blew his Olympic moment in London when he insulted the British and couldn't even gain some traction from his Salt Lake City performance.

++Nate the Great at the New York Times tried to get people to sober up about the recent polling data. But the fallout was caused by the hysteria of the Romney campaign and how the right-wing punditry went hysterical. Nate is probably right. Romney will recover something with the Convention and we will be treated to the horse race coverage again. But throughout today Romney's erstwhile supporters were saying he has lost the election.

++The wilder spin has been the whole mantra that this is really 1980 again and Jimmy Carter led to the very end and was blown out. Not true. Reagan had small leads beginning now and then after the debates his lead increased. So far Romney's polling has mirrored Bob Dole's in 1996. Besides, Reagan was actually a likable man with a good sense of humor while Romney doesn't have a human touch about him. People really didn't like Carter as a human, feeling he was too severe and judgmental. He was also embroiled in the Iran hostage crisis, which sapped the morale of the country. Even with the current economic situation, we aren't there yet.

++More troubling for Romney has to be the string of economic indicators suggesting the economy will keep humming along and the jobs picture has brightened. Economists originally thought the last quarter of the year things would pick up and this would be too late for President Obama. But there are suggestions that despite the crisis in the Eurozone the American economy will keep chugging along. 

++Michael Tomasky writing in the Daily Beast has questioned why Romney seems more concerned with solidifying support with the values voter rather than those concerned about the economy. In part because of the Religious Right puts boots on the ground to mobilize GOTV efforts. But the effect is to turn off independent voters. In fact, the ads that President Obama is waging a war against religion seems to have turned off Catholics, Franciscans, nuns and Jesuits, who mention that Pope John Paul II was for universal healthcare and labor rights. At this rate, Romney is left with the Catholic Bishops and the Pope.

++Today saw the Huntsman tribe come forth and deny they are the sources for Harry Reid's accusations about Romney not paying taxes. To vilify them, the Breibart group put out a story they would be attending the Democratic Convention. Abby Huntsman made sure everyone knew this wasn't true. But all the Huntsman tribe came out urging Romney to release more of his taxes--ten years worth--because Romney wasn't being fair to the American voter.

++The Obama campaign has been piling on over the tax issue but also the ad that probably made Romney cry for a truce was "Son of Boss", which showed how Romney used what the IRS called an "abusive" tax write-off, which goes to the heart of his business ethics. The ad that got the Romney campaign in high dudgeon was from Priorities USA, which has never aired but the reaction to it gave it free time on all the television stations. It was an ad about a steelworker laid off by Bain and whose wife died because she no longer had healthcare. The ad was a Youtube cut which now has gone viral and provoked a Romney response ad that cost big bucks and which accused President Obama of playing foul. For Democrats, it was a good sight that the Obama campaign didn't flinched. Instead, when the Romney campaign said they wanted to run a cleaner campaign, the answer we will be there when you come up to that level.

++Obviously, David Axelrod is having a field day. Today, he suggested that Romney pick Gov.Pawlenty as his vice-president. Was it a mind game or a real opinion? The reactions of the Romney camp these days suggest Obama is in their heads, which is not a nice play for them to be.

++Sheldon Adelson says the sky is the limit for his donations this election, probably more than the $100 million he has committed so far. And key states Romney needs are tightening up their voter lists and time-frames for voting. Iowa has started purging voter rolls, Virginia is doing the same on the pretext Democrats are registering cats and dogs, and Ohio is allowing extended early voting in Republican counties and restricting early voting in Democratic counties, particularly the larger cities where minorities are.

++Republicans are also complaining that the primary candidates do not have speaking roles at the Convention and neither are their stars like Donald Trump. We will miss Herman Cain and his 9-9-9 Plan.