(Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
Look who's
pretending that he's already won the GOP nomination:
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said today he will unveil his jobs plan on Sept. 6th, the same week as President Obama unveils his plan -- possibly even the same day. It's also one day before the NBC/Politico debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA. On Sept. 5th, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is hosting a candidates forum in Columbia, SC.
"If it's a continuation of what we've seen in the past, we know it will fail," Romney said to Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto of the president's plan. "I'm also in Nevada on Sept. 6th, and I will be coming out with my jobs plan, and it will be very different from his. And if we follow my jobs plan we'll get America working again."
NBC's Garrett Haake thinks Romney's gambit is a smart bit of political theater by Romney's staff, saying it will create "a big political news day" and "allows them to bracket President Obama," but given that it's not even clear if Mitt Romney is still a front-runner, he shouldn't be terribly concerned about trying to bracket President Obama. Instead, he needs to figure out how he can win the nomination, and that means explaining why he'd be a better pick than his rivals.
Waiting to release his jobs plan until he's in the shadow of President Obama's jobs plan will make it harder, not easier, for Romney to break through the noise. Unless he says something really outrageous, people won't be interested in what Romney has to say about Obama's plan. Instead, they're going to be interested in what John Boehner and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell have to say—because unlike Mitt Romney, what they say and what they think actually matters.