GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has settled on a rather low-key strategy of avoiding controversy, even as he allows his rivals all discredit themselves with outlandish statements.
If the last 24 hours are any indication, there's something to this approach. In a single day, almost all of his opponents have said something that has attracted negative national media attention and should be raising real concerns among GOP establishment figures about their fitness for the presidential campaign.
Consider the things his rivals have said over the last 24 hours or so.
-Michele Bachmann fears the rise of the Soviet Union, which dissolved almost twenty years ago...
-Rick Santorum says abortion and gay marriage caused the economic crisis...
-Rick Perry has no grasp of basic biology or history...
This was just today. Just about the only Republican presidential candidate who hasn't said anything ridiculous in the last 24 hours is Mitt Romney. It's a low bar to clear, but for a candidate who obviously has his eyes on winning the general election and not just the Republican primary, it's also something of a vindication. And, hey, it might work even in the primary: If Romney can stand by while his opponents implode — without getting drawn into the whackiness himself — enough GOP primary voters just may decide he's the last electable candidate standing.
Romney shrewdly lays low while rivals say whacked out things
The Washington Post:
