In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

In a bit of political satire in Politico, Paul Ryan is now calling Mitt Romney “The Stench”, as in stench of defeat, and Team Romney refers to Paul Ryan as “Gilligan”.  While it may be just humor, it has the air of hitting pretty close to the mark.  Ryan and Romney don’t look too comfortable with each other these days.

Where is the bromance we saw in August?

Apparently the bloom is off that rose.

There is an old saying on the trail that you can’t spell campaign without “pain” – while not literally true the pain of the campaign was broadcast across Paul Ryan’s wincing face when Mitt Romney had a moment of unguarded honesty in Ohio.

Romney said, accurately, that President Obama had not raised taxes in the last four years. That moment of candor undercut the Romney/Ryan tickets messaging big time.

Team Romney quickly issued (another) so-called-correction on behalf of their presidential candidate.

But the video of Romney saying what is true and Ryan reacting to it cannot be rolled back with a blasted out email from the Romney Self Inflicted Wound Rapid Response Team.

Ryan, however, is not the only Republican to go rogue on his boss.

Perhaps the relationship began to unravel in a moment of Paul Ryan’s unguarded honesty when he called Romney’s words at a Florida fundraiser “inelegant” and “inarticulate”.

It’s not like Paul Ryan did not witness the Romney disaster of a primary campaign where every time he popped up in the polls he shot himself in the foot. With all the money he could need, Romney was unable to easily dispatch of a former speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace or a former senator that sat at one percent in the polls for over a year and was voted out of office in Pennsylvania by a landslide.

Is Paul Ryan so delusional that he thought he could fix the campaign?

The answer, apparently, is yes.

Ryan is part of a flotilla of Republicans abandoning the Romney ship in September.

In the history of Presidential campaigns it is unheard of for a campaign co-chair to leave the campaign seven weeks out to take a job in the private sector. But that is just what Romney co-chair, two-time vice presidential nominee runner-up and Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty did.

He left to take a job as a Wall Street lobbyist that he could have easily taken in November. By why defer the month and a half of extra money for a losing campaign?

As for the other runner-ups in the Romney veepstakes? They are starting their presidential campaigns with forays into Iowa. In September. Before the election.

Across the country candidates for the House and Senate have seen their internal polling. Mitt Romney is dragging them down with him.

In Massachusetts, Scott Brown who the GOP is counting on in the Senate, is running an ad for himself where President Obama says “good job” to him. He is literally embracing Romney’s opponent.

Across the border in Connecticut, Linda McMahon is likewise running away from the top of the GOP ticket.

But it is not just in blue states where Obama will easily win on November 6. It is a national phenomenon.

In Nevada , Virginia and Hawaii, candidates have all distanced themselves from Romney and his disparaging comments about the 47 percent.

Susana Martinez, the Republican Governor of New Mexico who spoke for Romney at the Republican National Convention, likewise sought to distance herself from Romney’s comments.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But the toughest words for Romney are coming from the Republican pundits that always knew Romney was not up to the task.

This parting of the ways is a huge strategic problem for Republicans. The Republican National Committee is sitting on tens of millions of dollars it can spend on television but it must be done in coordination with the Romney campaign and Senate and House candidates.

These “party building ads” do not work if they do more harm to the House and Senate candidates as Romney’s numbers nosedive.

The Super PACs have a similar problem. If they write off Romney then he loses more support and the job of lifting down ballot Republicans gets that much harder.

Romney is dragging every Republican down and House and Senate Republican operatives have conceded as much throughout the month of September.

The fact that it is September and the GOP is abandoning Mitt Romney in droves gives Democrats hope that what was unthinkable in the spring – an Obama reelection that increases seats in the Senate and a potential takeover of the House – may be within their reach.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

1. The state of New Mexico has its own institutions of higher education. Lots of them. They provide people across the state and country with fantastic educations already.
2. Our public universities and colleges cost significantly less than the University of Phoenix and would create less of a financial burden for state employees who already haven’t had raises in 4 years.
3. As a for-profit education institution, the University of Phoenix (along with many other for-profit schools) have come under fire for irresponsible business practices that result in a disproportionately larger population of student loan defaulters. If Governor Martinez has aspirations beyond the state level, she may want to rethink endorsement of a company that costs the federal government large amounts of money.
4. Talk about a blow to morale – does she not think our schools are worth promoting and supporting? I realize that the University of Phoenix may offer students more flexibility in scheduling, but there are other ways to go about getting an education that the state could sponsor. She could institute 4 day work weeks for employees going back to school so that they have a free business day. She could offer flextime and alternative working hours or a telecommuting option.

To say that I am disappointed by this “partnership” is an understatement. Additionally, it appears that the University of Phoenix’s parent company made a sizable contribution to Martinez’s PAC. That $5,000 wouldn’t even cover half of the University of Phoenix’s tuition.

But even after the conventions, the parties still have a lot of work to do to attract Hispanic voters — especially the Republican party. According to a September 10 impreMedia/Latino Decisions poll which asked Hispanic voters their opinions on the parties’ outreach efforts, 47 percent of Hispanic voters said the Republicans “don’t care” about Latinos, and 20 percent said the Republicans were being “hostile” toward Hispanics. Only 19 percent of those polled thought Republicans were doing a good job reaching Latinos.

RELATED:  Republican convention report card: How did GOP do with Latinos? 

Regarding their views on Democratic outreach to Latinos, 49 percent of registered Hispanic voters though the Democratic party was doing a good job, 30 percent agreed the party does not care about Latinos, and 6 percent thought the Democrats were hostile to Hispanics. Moreover, the poll found Latino voters were still more enthusiastic at this time in 2008 than in 2012.

“While it’s clear the Republicans have far more work to do on mending their image with Latinos, the Democrats also need to increase their efforts and not take the Latino vote for granted,” said Latino Decisions principal Matt Barreto.

RELATED: After convention, Latino Democrats gear up for tight stretch run

So what did Hispanic voters think of high-profile Latino participation at the two conventions?

At the Republican convention in Tampa, Florida, two Republican Hispanic governors, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez gave primetime speeches, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio had a very prominent speaking role, as he introduced Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney before his acceptance speech. Texas Tea Party Republican Senate candidate Ted Cruz also spoke.

RELATED: Republican Latino Governors and VP pick Ryan attack Obama’s policies 

Following the convention, the impreMedia/Latino Decisions weekly tracking poll found 62 percent of Hispanic voters said Martinez’ and Rubio’s participation had no effect on how they viewed Republicans. But in what Latino Decisions’ political scientist Matt Barreto described as “encouraging” for Republicans, 38 percent of Latino independents said they had a more favorable impression of Republicans following the Martinez/Rubio participation while only 8 percent said it gave them a less favorable impression — a 30+ margin. A tracking poll found Mitt Romney had gained favorability among Latinos following the convention.

RELATED: Rubio and Romney promise economic prosperity, criticize Obama 

At the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, San Antonio, Texas Mayor Julian Castro gave the Democratic convention’s first-ever Latino keynote speech, and there were speeches by Latino legislators such as Luis Gutierrez, Nydia Velazquez and Xavier Becerra. Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, chaired the Democratic National Convention and spoke several times on the stage. Fifty-four percent of Latino voters said the inclusion of Castro and Villaraigosa had no influence on their view of Democrats, while 35 percent said it made them more favorable toward Democrats and 4 percent make them less favorably inclined. Latino independents were less impressed with the participation of Latino speakers at the Democratic convention; only 26 percent said they had a more favorable impression and 5 percent a less favorable impression.

RELATED: Julian Castro, Michelle Obama fire up convention floor, urge Obama’s re-election

Latino Decisions’ Matt Barreto said both parties earned positive marks for their efforts at Latino inclusion and outreach. Dr. Barreto also says, however, that Latino enthusiasm and voter turnout will be critical in November. “Even small fluctuations in projected Latino turnout causes states like Colorado and Virginia to oscillate between Romney and Obama,” saying low Latino turnout in Nevada could make President Obama lose the state, and Republican gains in Florida among Latinos could tip the state to Romney.

Both campaigns are spending much time in battleground states such as Florida, Nevada and Ohio as the countdown continues to November.

Martinez on the campaign trail. Source: OK, I admit it. This is my parody of Susana Martinez on the campaign trail.

We’re nearly halfway through Susana Martinez’s four-year term as Governor of New Mexico. Last month Martinez was asked to speak in Tampa at the Republican Convention than nominated Mitt Romney for president. If you watched the speech hoping to hear her describe her accomplishments in her first two years of office, you were disappointed. It was the familiar “up by the bootstraps” and “anything is possible in America” rhetoric of the Republican (and for that matter Democratic) party. And it made perfect sense for Martinez. Better to stick to biography, after all, when her policies are as bad as they are. And how bad are her policies? A partial review of Martinez’s anti-environmental record:

Ground Water Quality

Martinez came into office at the tail end of the long fight to regulate dairy industry waste pits in New Mexico. In 2010, the New Mexico Water Quality Commission finally addressed the fact that the vast majority of dairy industry manure lagoons in New Mexico contaminated ground water. A new rule required, among other improvements, synthetic liners in all manure lagoons. When Martinez took office she ordered that the new rule not be published, thus preventing the Water Quality Commission from enforcing the rule. A negotiated agreement watered down the more stringent standards.

Wait there’s more. As we reported last month, Martinez also has been at the center of industry efforts to gut the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division’s 2008 oil and gas waste pit rule. (Martinez must really like waste pits) Thousands of oil and gas wastes pits leach contaminants into the soil and ground water. Martinez backs industry efforts to return to unlined pits.

Air Quality

In 2011 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally ordered that Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) install pollution control units at the San Juan Generating Station outside Farmington, units that if installed could clean up the dirtiest coal plant in the U.S. Southwest. PNM, of course, balked at making improvements at a cost of more than $750 million. At a July meeting in Farmington, residents on and adjacent to the Navajo Nation explained the impacts of the plant. “From my classroom you can see two coal plants polluting the air on a daily basis,” said Laura Comer, a teacher at Atsa Biyaazh Community School in Shiprock. Abby Wear, executive director of the New Mexico chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, explained to the EPA and New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) officials that coal particulates are linked to cardiac and respiratory disease. Anna Rondo, a Diné woman from Chi Chil Tah, south of Gallup, testified that haze from the power plant obscures more than a view of the tribe’s sacred sites. “We cannot eat the fish we catch,” she said, “because it contains too much mercury and other toxins.” But these people are not Martinez’s constituency. She is more interested in protecting PNM’s profit margin than protecting clean air and sacred sites. Martinez ordered the NMED to request a stay from EPA. Meanwhile, according to one study, San Juan continues to kill dozens each year and cause hundreds more cases of asthma.

Climate Change

In November and December of 2010, the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board approved two climate change mitigation rules that included new requirements for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Electric generating facilities with annual emissions greater than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), for example, would now be required to reduce those emissions by a specified percentage every year for eight years. In January 2011, Martinez fired the entire Environmental Improvement Board. The board she appointed quickly withdrew both rules.

In January of 2011, the New Mexico Supreme Court chastised Susana Martinez for her scorched earth approach to environmental policy. “No one is above the law,” declared chief justice Charles W. Daniels in a decision requiring that the Governor publish the dairy rule and the Environmental Improvement Board’s climate change standards requiring annual three percent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by large polluters.

Despite the decision of New Mexico’s highest court, Martinez watered down the dairy rule, repealed the climate change mitigation plan, and currently works to make New Mexico safe for oil and gas polluters.

Martinez began her speech at the Republican convention in Tampa by narrating her humble roots. “[E]n America,” she told the delegates in Spanish, “todo es posible.” After two years in office, it’s clear she does indeed believe that anything is possible, particularly when it means the rolling back of environmental regulation in defense of corporate profit.

National studies have shown that lesbians and gays are less likely to have health insurance than the general population. This problem is worse for transgender Americans who have some of the lowest insurance coverage rates in the country.

This directly threatens the health of our families and community.

New Mexico has an enormous opportunity to directly tackle this problem by expanding Medicaid–the state/federal health insurance program–and thereby provide healthcare coverage to nearly 150,000 New Mexicans.

By expanding Medicaid, New Mexico can extend life-saving healthcare coverage to tens-of-thousands of NM families, create over 17,000 jobs, bring in billions in federal dollars to jump start our economy, and reduce healthcare costs for all consumers and taxpayers.

By providing an avenue to healthcare coverage, Medicaid expansion will have a significant impact on the lesbian, gay, and transgender community. A call to action, tell Governor Martinez that all families need healthcare: Ask her to support the Medicaid expansion

Equality New Mexico organized its days of action on September 10th and 11th. Members were encouraged to call Governor Susana Martinez, and ask her to support medicaid expansion in NM.

If you would like to join our work to ensure that more NM families get the healthcare coverage they need, contact Governor Martinez at 505-476-2200 and ask her to make the Medicaid expansion a reality for New Mexico’s families.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2012
Contact: Scott Darnell

(505) 819-1398

scott.darnell@state.nm.us

**MEDIA ADVISORY**

SANTA FE – Governor Susana Martinez will pay tribute to those individuals who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 tomorrow in Albuquerque. Governor Martinez will attend a ceremony at Fire Station No. 2, which will be dedicated to the memory of those who were killed in the attacks. Tomorrow morning, the new fire station will raise the American flag for the first time in honor of those individuals.

Later, Governor Martinez will meet with firefighters and other first responders in at the New Mexico Fire and EMS Expo at the New Mexico Fire Academy in Socorro to thank them for their contributions and sacrifices in the name of public safety. The New Mexico Fire Academy trains approximately 4,000 municipal, county, and wildland firefighters each year.

Pursuant to federal directive, all flags should be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset tomorrow.

WHO: Governor Susana Martinez

WHAT: Governor Martinez will pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and visit with firefighters and first responders to thank them for their service

WHEN: Tomorrow, September 11

9/11 Memorial and Tribute Ceremony, 8:30 a.m.

New Mexico Fire and EMS Expo, 2:00 p.m.

WHERE: 9/11 Memorial and Tribute Ceremony, AFD Fire Station No. 2, 2401 Alumni Drive SE, Albuquerque (off of Gibson east of I-25)

New Mexico Fire and EMS Expo, New Mexico Fire Academy, 200 Aspen Road, Socorro

NOTE: Governor Martinez will also address a conference for Motor Vehicle Division managers at the Embassy Suites, 1000 Woodward Place NE, Albuquerque, at 11:00 a.m.

###

Top Takeaways from Both Conventions

• This is going to be a base turnout election: What exactly does that mean?  Things are going to be a little bit different than four years ago.  In 2008, Obama was able to draw unprecedented support from constituencies that weren’t always heavily democratic voters.  That is not likely to be the case this time around.  Polling of voters seems to show that things might be going back to “normal,” but that doesn’t necessarily signal disaster for the president.  Mathematically the Democrats have a larger base to draw from, putting pressure on the Republicans to draw Independents away from a President that many of them voted for 4 years ago.  Fortunately for Romney, he has been holding his own with Independents, even though he didn’t have “that moment” during the convention that has shown marked success in bringing them over to his side.  Additionally, current numbers are showing that Republicans are rating the likelihood that they will show up to vote high, at about a 7, while Democrats are showing much lower, around a 3 or a 4.  This difference in enthusiasm about showing up in November could be just enough to really make a huge difference in a tight election.

• This election is going to have to be about more than the economy: Sure, we’re in some of the worst economic times our nation has seen in decades, but it seems like people are sick of hearing about it from the candidates.  With as few undecided voters as there are left, you have to assume, if not now sometime very soon, that they are not economy voters.  If they were, after all the rhetoric on the topic, don’t you think they would have already made up their minds?  I think that the conventions show that the Republican’s tactic of solely focusing on the economy might not be paying the necessary dividends.  But if this is a strategy that Romney/Ryan want to stick with through November, they are going to have to update the talking points a little, because they are starting to sound stale.  While the 5 point plan they started touting in August is helpful, it doesn’t give much guidance to an undecided voter about what a Republican White House would really do to right the ship.
• No matter which party you’re in, 5 states matter: If you’ve been paying attention to national poll numbers, stop.  At this phase of the game, its a waste of time, unless you are hoping for another electoral college/popular vote incongruence like in 2000 (and I won’t lie, that would be kinda exciting).  In my opinion, there are 5 states that Republicans should focus on: Florida, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Iowa.  The Romney team is putting a lot of emphasis on New Hampshire as well, and while I don’t think it is a completely lost cause, Iowa seems to me to be a better bet.  This is the Republican path to success.  Nothing groundbreaking has to be accomplished to win these states.  In fact Republicans won all of these states in 2004, and all but Iowa in 2000 (when, coincidentally, they won New Hampshire.. so maybe Team Romney has it right after all).  Expect to see the campaigns in these states a lot in the coming weeks, and listen for their rhetoric that reaches out to their citizens even when the candidates aren’t there.  The Democrats, every time they talk about the auto bailout and Obama’s support of the industry, they are speaking directly to Ohio, where they believe that one in every six citizens has a tie back to the industry.  And all the conversation on Medicare?  Well, it doesn’t take much to figure out where that talk is headed, the retirement capital of the world: Florida.  It will be interesting to see how Romney’s (who raised over $100 million in August alone) large financial advantage over Obama (who’s camp once claimed to be on the path toward raising an unprecedented $1 billion) plays out over the coming weeks.  All of the polls in these states are well within the margin of error, one way or another.  Will Romney be able to move the needle and get the votes?

And now, from each convention, The Good, The Bad, and The Weird (because I’d hate to call anyone ugly):

The Republicans:

The Good - Well, as a Republican, obviously this was a hard choice for me.  I think that many might look at the Convention and label it mediocre: not that many people walked away that much more taken with Mitt Romney, and he didn’t get a numbers boost to speak of.  He didn’t open up and paint viewers this dramatic picture of where he will take them, or the trials and tribulations that formed the man we see today.  In this post-Obama electorate, we have completely lost our center.  Politicians haven’t always been these cult of personality, larger than life people who, at some point before the election transcend into demigods sent to save us from ourselves.  Obama is the exception, not the rule.  And while I didn’t come away from watching the convention more enamored with Romney, I did come away with a great pride in our party, what it represents and where it is headed.  I think the Republicans presented many qualified “rising stars”, my personal favorites including Susana Martinez (NM Governor), Nikki Haley (SC Governor), Scott Walker (WI Governor), Senator Marco Rubio (who I consider to be the Barack Obama of the Republican party, due mostly to his youth and speaking style), and Mia Love (Utah Congressional candidate).  There were also several members of the current party elite who were good, including of course the remarkable Condi Rice.  And while I thought that Romney and Ryan both were great, the best moments of the week came on Thursday night, and not from politicians, but from everyday people who know Mitt Romney.  In this previous post, I wondered if anyone could make Mitt’s case for him.. show his personal side, help bridge that current gap with undecideds.  If these had been in prime time, I think they would have done the trick.  There were several members of the Romney’s church, and business leaders he worked with through Bain, who spoke,  but this is the one that I found the most powerful.

The Bad - Chris Christie.  Well, if he doesn’t run for President in four years, he sure did waste a bunch of time on a national stage in prime time talking about himself.  Even Bill Clinton didn’t spend as much time patting his own back, in a way, as Christie did.  I feel like it sent the wrong message from a Convention that was already considered to be only mildly excited by its candidate.

The Weird- Ok, of course, couldn’t let this category pass without including Clint Eastwood.  Was it bizarre?  Absolutely.  But did I love it?  You better believe it.

Also, Ann Romney gave a great speech.. but you gotta figure she was pretty nervous to be as giggly as she was, and to channel her inner Oprah for this:

The Democrats:

The Good: There is a part of me that wants to put President Obama’s speech in this category, but I just can’t.  When you compare this speech to others he has given, it wasn’t nearly as inspiring, though it was much more substantive than many he has delivered previously.  But no, I can’t list Obama here.  And really, I don’t think I can put some of the other speakers, like San Antonio Mayor Castro, or Vice President Joe Biden, because they were all overshadowed by Bill Clinton.  The amazing success of Clinton’s speech, for me, wasn’t its words or its delivery, although both were powerful.  It was the fact that he was able to make you feel like maybe his presidency and Barack Obama’s aren’t that different after all.  And really, that deserves an Academy Award, because the opposite could not be more true.  Clinton was willing to reach across the aisle when necessary, the President has shown zero inclination to do so.  Sometimes he won’t even reach over to the other side of his own party to garner support.  The fact of Clinton’s speech was this: much of the powerful rhetoric he laid down about compromise has been compromised by his own party over the past four years.. and was undermined by Clinton’s own condemnation of Republicans in his own speech, only a few breaths later.  But either way, he did a good job of convincing those watching that maybe Barack Obama can’t keep his word on all that Hope and Change, but maybe, just maybe, he can take us back to the glory days of Clinton.  Ironic, don’t you think, since the Clintons were the figureheads of the institution Candidate Obama was Hoping to Change as a candidate 4 years ago.  But hey, in this light I guess even old foes look like nobel examples.

The Bad – The platform debacle.  What should have been a non-issue suddenly became national news.  Democrats are right: the platform isn’t binding and party members represent all kinds of adherence or non-adherence to it.  But in the age of the 24 hour news cycle, this was a pretty powerful image of a party divided on some pretty basic issues.  First the mention of God and the affirmation of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel are removed from the platform, then they are put back in in this contentious fashion.  Can’t say the Republican party isn’t likewise divided on some issues.. but luckily a vote on those hasn’t been captured on film.  You have to wonder: if the party is split on these things now, what are those divisive issues going to be in 10 years?

and last but not least: The Weird - ok this speech from former Michigan Governor Granholm was just plain strange.  Who let her drink before going on stage? I promise you, its worth watching EVERY SECOND

The “why” is obvious. Despite the fact that delegates to last week’s Republican National Convention were 98 percent white, take a look at the headliners: former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez. New faces are being showcased by the GOP.  The “how,” according to conservative Latinas I spoke with, will be by capitalizing on the now-broken stereotype that the Republican Party is only for rich white people who don’t care about minorities, the poor or women. That’s a pretty sunny outlook for those who have spent their lives surrounded by liberal peers who, despite claiming to be inclusive, think nothing of calling minority Republicans traitors to their race or ethnicity, elitists, sellouts and, lately, anti-women.

Take, for instance, this comment I found on the “talk back” section of a Latino news-oriented website. On a page to vote for “the most influential Latino politicians in the United States,” one person remarked: “Marco Rubio or Susana Martinez? Two Latinos that have both disowned their own heritage. Sorry I cannot/will not vote for either one — they disgrace most of the rest on this list.”

But though Hispanic Republicans have to put up with a lot of wrath from fellow Latinos and other minorities, at least they’re no longer seen as an exotic species. ”I started out as a Democrat and became a Republican — and a Mexican Republican, not a Cuban one — with Ronald Reagan,” said Teri Galvez, a Washington-based entrepreneur and vice chair of the DC GOP. “When I converted, there weren’t many of us. Frankly, I may have been the first Republican intern in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in 1983 and people were always shocked, they couldn’t believe it that I was a Republican. There’s been a huge change in the last few years.”

But Veronica Vera, a Puerto Rican freelance writer and public relations specialist, tells me that though the spotlight treatment has been new, minority Republicans really aren’t. ”I don’t think that it was as rare as what’s been depicted. I think the real difference now is that Republicans, who up until this point haven’t really done a very good job of reaching out to the Hispanic community, now know that they have to showcase their Hispanic support,” said Vera, an Air Force veteran who grew up on the south side of Chicago and spent a lifetime defending her conservative beliefs. ”The Republican Party has to make people see that it’s all about perception. There is this lie that Hispanics are Democrats and always should be. This misperception is so prevalent that they have to ignore criticism that they are pandering to Latinos and African-Americans and say, ‘Hey, look — we’re diverse, we’re a much broader group than the media and the Democrats give us credit for.’”

The women I spoke with say that although they do put up with a lot of rhetorical abuse, when they talk openly about their political beliefs, they often unexpectedly find fellow travelers. “I was just at the after-party of a heavy metal rock band concert with a bunch of longhair Hispanic headbangers in Iron Maiden T-shirts sitting around talking politics at three o’clock in the morning,” said Stefanie Pena, a grade-school language arts teacher and fifth-generation Mexican-American from Houston. “And they were very staunch in their conservative beliefs — and angry that members of other ethnic groups look down on them for being with a party they think of as greedy and unwilling to help the poor.”
All three of these women spoke at length about how emotional, thrilling and inspirational it was to watch Martinez, America’s first Latina governor, on stage last week and their hope that her speech will empower others to get involved in politics. But it was Pena who put it in terms any Democrat could understand. ”I was watching with tears in my eyes. This was the beginning of something so beautiful and for one second I understood the whole Obama thing: Now my daughter can look up to a Susana Martinez and see that it’s OK to have those beliefs and be a woman, and do the things we’re doing.”

Esther Cepeda is syndicated columnist and an NBC Latino Contributor.

You can reach her at estherjcepeda@washpost.com. 

(c) 2012, Washington Post Writers Group

(Photoillo by Scott Dvorin)

The blue-collar success stories piled up so fast at the Republican Convention in Tampa that one would have been forgiven for assuming that the party was made up entirely of the sons and daughters of garage mechanics, fruit pickers and removers of rotting animal carcasses from the nation’s highways.

Over and over again, speakers informed us of how they came from families of hard-working strivers, with parents who fought their way up from nothing. Such tales were almost de rigueur, especially if they involved “starting a small business.”

Before telling us how little girls now approach her with reverence and awe, Susana Martinez, the runaway egomaniac who is the governor of New Mexico, informed us that her mother and father started their security guard business by handing her—then an 18-year-old girl—a “Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum,” and posting her in the parking lot of a church during bingo games. There are those who might assume that this accounts for Ms. Martinez’s decision, as a prosecutor, to specialize in child abuse, but never mind.

Rick Santorum told us that he was a first-generation American and the grandson of a coal miner. (He didn’t mention that he was also the son of a clinical psychologist and an administrative nurse.) John Boehner told us he was “a regular guy with a big job,” whose father and uncles had first put him to work “mopping floors, waiting tables” at the bar they owned. Paul Ryan assured us that when he “was waiting tables, washing dishes or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life.” No doubt, that optimism was at least partly inspired by the trust fund he would inherit, thanks to his family’s enormously successful construction company (founded in 1884), and confirmed by his marriage to his millionaire wife, a Washington lobbyist and scion of a family of wealthy trial lawyers—not exactly the social familiar of your average dishwasher or lawn boy.

By the time Marco Rubio told us on the last night of the convention that his father “stood behind a bar in the back of the room all those years, so one day I could stand behind a podium in the front of a room,” this trope had reached the level of self-parody.

What could be next? “My father played piano in a whorehouse, so I could play on the stage at Carnegie Hall?” “My mother scraped gum off the sidewalk, so one day I could scrape the Iranian mullahs’ fingers off their nuclear-enrichment cyclotrons?”

Tim Pawlenty made sure to tell us that he was the only one of the five kids in his family to go to college, about the sweetest personal anecdote told by a Republican since the days when Supreme Court aspirant Clarence Thomas used to go around the country regaling audiences with tales of what a lazy no-account his sister was.

All this poor-mouthing of origins, family finances and siblings served a dual purpose, as both a reaffirmation of rugged, Republican individualism, and to support the convention talking point that the press and the Democrats must stop seeking to “demonize success” in general, and that great “businessman,” Mitt Romney, in particular … with their demands that he release his tax returns.

Before the convention was over, Mr. Romney had been transformed—in his own words—into the son of a Mexican immigrant, whose family were “war refugees” from the Mexican Revolution of 1910-17, and who “never made it through college and apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter,” before becoming the head of a great automobile company and governor of Michigan.

In fact, Mr. Romney’s family had fled to Mexico from the territorial U.S. to avoid federal prosecution of the Mormon practice of polygamy. (The Mormon “Mexico colonies,” as they were called, were uprooted following the overthrow of dictator Porfirio Diaz by local rebels who had bought their weapons in the U.S.) George Romney was indeed a remarkable man, almost a great one, but he was already an affluent auto executive by the time Mitt was born—able to provide his newborn son with “a few thousand dollars” in birthday gifts, according to Mitt’s wife, Ann.

This money was in turn invested by George in American Motors stock, which, under his dynamic leadership and that old-timey liberal prosperity thing, increased exponentially in value. Earlier in the convention, Ann had described her early married years with Mitt as a time when they ate “tuna fish and pasta” off an ironing board pressed into service as a table, and had to walk to graduate school classes. (The horror. The horror.) But if you believe her earlier accounts of the nest egg George had hatched for his son, they were scraping by on at least several hundred thousand 1969 dollars-worth of investment windfall.

Even by the standards of political bio exaggeration, all this comes off as a rather nervy piece of family revisionism, but never mind. The bigger issue here is that nobody in the Republican party seems to remember what a good job or a true businessman is anymore.

Almost all work is noble, of course, but not all of it is ennobling, and not all of it brings any multiplying or lasting value to an economy, a society or a family. The ambitions of Susana Martinez’s hardworking parents are nothing to mock, but hiring a teenaged girl to tote a .357 Magnum around the parking lot of a bingo game reflects the increasing desperation of the American working class, more than it does the traditional American dream. So is shoveling liquor into drunks, then making your kid clean up around the place. One does what one has to in this world, but the reality that those of us who don’t have that trust fund or “a few thousand” shares of prime stock awaiting their maturity are indeed more and more likely to be stuck mopping floors and waiting tables seems lost on this party. For Republicans, manual labor has become a weird sort of fetish, like Marie Antoinette’s fake pastoral village at Versailles, where she could play at running a working farm before returning to her glittering palace.

For that matter, Mitt Romney himself was hardly a “businessman” in the tradition of his father. He was, at best, a “venture capitalist,” at worst a “leveraged buyout artist”—and it’s not clear that, in a career of endlessly chopping up and restitching existing companies, he really created any net jobs at all, much less invented, produced or marketed anything. In the incredibly lazy, outdated hack job that is his campaign biography, No Apologies, Mitt makes his greatest success story—backing the expansion of Staples—as momentous as Andrew Carnegie developing a process for the mass production of steel.

Sorry, but putting some of your vast inherited wealth behind a company that has found a way to distribute office supplies more cheaply is not the same thing as, say, running Chrysler. Republicans are trying to make the case that Mr. Romney’s vaunted business experience will save the country. Unfortunately, what he has told us of his plans seems all too likely to reflect that experience. That is, taking apart and selling off the majestic constructions of our past.

Kevin Baker is covering the conventions and the election for harpers.org.