Mitt Romney and his surrogates have apparently concluded that playing it safe, like John McCain did in 2008, is their best bet to win the White House. How'd they draw that insane conclusion? I'm guessing the Romney brass has been watching a little too much network television.

The media constantly tell Republicans that Americans don't like negative campaigning, that it turns them off and pushes them into the arms of the other candidate. Yet it seems to work nicely for Democrats like Obama. They come out swinging, biting and clawing until the GOP candidate is lying in a puddle of their own bodily fluids. They're straight up killers in a Presidential election and the Chicago thugs have taken things to a whole new level.

Yet what do the Romney folks do? They refuse to answer even straight-forward questions from the media, such as, "tell us what loop holes you would close to off-set lowering tax rates across the board?" The response, "we'll negotiate those terms with Congress."  That's simply not good enough.

Even Paul Ryan has been neutered. Ryan is famous for providing detailed answers to difficult questions, and doing so in a manner that is easy for the majority to understand. Yet now he sounds like a Romney press liaison who is just trying to get through the interview without stepping on his toes. Instead of pressing the fight, they're playing rope-a-dope with Obama and he's starting to connect.

I don't understand how we arrived at this place. Romney took no prisoners during the Republican primaries and eventually beat down his closest competitors. His campaign advertising was direct and often vicious; just the kind of ads you need to compete with the most unscrupulous group to ever occupy the White House. But that's not what were seeing from the Romney campaign now. It's vanilla, it's unmoving and it's a losing strategy.

I'd suggest the Romney campaign rethink it's strategy and get its foot on the gas NOW! Take the muzzle off Ryan and let him do what he does best - talk specifics. Why put him on the ticket if your not going to let him do his thing? He does it better than anyone, and Romney isn't bad at it himself. This is simply no time to be timid. Romney is going to have to take this election, because the Democrats are sure not going to hand it to him, nor will the media allow them to.

Look, it's not too late Mitt. There's still time to take the gloves off and start throwing hay-makers at this guy. You've got more evidence of his incompetence than you'd need to win the next five elections. Just get aggressive and then hammer away. Otherwise, you'll end up like McCain, Dole and Bush I wondering how you'd lost such a golden opportunity against a guy with an absolutely awful track record.

Bottom-line, you can't stay clean fighting with pigs Mitt. Get down in the mud and start slinging it back at them!

Update on Friday, September 14, 2012 at 10:24PM by Chuck (FL Pundit)

In an effort to give credit where it is due, my hat is off to the Romney team for their aggressive campaigning this week. That's exactly what he'll need to win this thing. Ignore the press Mitt, they just want to shame you into silence. Don't take the bait like McCain did.