Mittness Protection

Late yesterday, Ben Smith posted a pretty devastating account of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign strategy. Or rather, Smith documents Romney's strategy of not doing many public events, not engaging in daily issue fights, and focusing on fundraising while hoping to remain a somewhat unknown front runner. Plenty of political strategists then say this a bad or crazy idea, akin to the prevent defense in football (as a New York Giants fan, my experience is that this strategy only prevents you from winning).

Time will tell whether or not Romney's low-impact campaign strategy will work or not. If the field today doesn't change, I don't think there's something obviously wrong about not sinking to the level of non-entities like Pawlenty & Huntsman or crazy people like Bachmann. But if the field expands - if someone like Perry or Palin or Christie joins the race - Romney will have to do more publicly. Romney's current methodology certainly doesn't seek to inspire nor does it seek to widen his somewhat meager lead; these are the most notable flaws in my book. But I'm guessing it's also helping Romney save tons of money and raise even more. A candidate who is dedicated to fundraising call time can be a powerful force in the long run.

What Smith's piece and the current Romney strategy really highlight is that Romney is not a strong frontrunner. He's not seeking to close the deal and widen a lead to the point of scaring off other entrants into the race. Instead he's hoping to maintain a steady lead and not give support away to current challengers through gaffs or daily narrative fights. It's a conservative stance but it is too soon to tell whether or not it's the wrong play this cycle.