Mitt Romney has
a new retort to those who question his record at Bain: that his victory in New Hampshire proves that nobody cares about them.
“These attacks from the Speaker and Rick Perry, you know, I expect that to come when people find their campaigns are having some difficulty, they look for a new course — I don’t think it worked,” Romney told Fox News. “I think the evidence from New Hampshire last night, where both the Speaker and Rick Perry were both in single digits, suggest this kind of attack on free enterprise is simply not gaining traction for them.”
Romney, who was asked if he planned to push back more on Bain, said these attacks mean he can talk about Bain often — and, he added, “that’s a good thing.”
But if Mitt Romney really likes talking about his record at Bain so much, why is it that his first reaction to criticism from Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry wasn't to defend his record? Instead of answering the charges being leveled against him, he's accusing his accusers of attacking capitalism itself, as if he were the living personification of free enterprise. Instead of defending his record, he's saying it's inappropriate to question it. In other words, he's doing exactly what someone does when they are confronted with something they don't want to talk about.
Nonetheless, Romney is probably right: Republicans won't care enough about the Bain attacks to sink his nomination, even if he doesn't fully answer the charges. From the Obama reelection campaign's perspective that's a good thing: the longer Mitt Romney tries to evade the substance of the Bain issue, the more salience it will have in November.