El silencio de Boston

Chicago flagela a Romney con Bain Capital y sus cuentas personales en anuncios de tv, talk shows, e-mails, twitter. Mientras tanto, Boston mantiene un silencio que muchos republicanos no entienden. Algunos creen que es por ineptitud, otros creen que es para seguir la regla de cero riesgos y evitar entregar la inicitiva (si entran de lleno, estarán aceptando que la conversación se de en los términos que a Chicago le conviene), y Jay Cost  (The Weekly Standard) cree que sinceramente no ven motivos suficientes para salirse del guión trazado y prefieren esperar a la convención para empezar a introducir al candidato a una audiencia más numerosa.

Team Obama has run hard against Mitt Romney in the swing states for outsourcing jobs, offshore bank accounts, and the like. Team Romney has been notably silent, not committing resources to rebut these charges. One reason might be that the charges are not resonating. Importantly, a new Gallup poll of the swing states shows no statistically significant change in the preferences of registered voters since early May.

It is important to remember that Team Romney will use the Republican National Convention to introduce him to the public. Of course, the Bain attacks are eventually going to damage his reputation, at least a little bit – but Romney has a solid and compelling story to tell. He saved the Olympics. He was a pragmatic governor in deep blue Massachusetts. He’s a loyal family man. And so on. Voters are going to have all the facts about Romney come November – the positive and the negative.

It makes sense for Romney to hold off until the Republican convention to do that, as that will be the time when voters start becoming engaged. By the same token, it is not at all clear that Team Obama is making the right choice to go after Romney so early. If voters are not paying much attention, these attacks might be played out by the fall without ever having had their full effect. Again, the Gallup poll suggests that they have not made much of an impact just yet, and so also does Team Romney's silence. If the campaign thought the Obama ads were having an impact in Ohio, for instance, they'd surely be on the air responding to them.

Se puede decir que está siendo fiel a lo que ya hizo en las primarias, cuando ponía a prueba la paciencia de sus aliados y seguidores antes de empezar a destruir al rival de turno. Recordaréis esto y esto.