Not a gold medal moment for Mitt Romney

The Romney campaign should have had a better game plan for dealing with the British press. While the game plan should have been to smile and shake hands, devolved into a failed attempt to pump up his own Olympic record. His stance of not politically attacking the president while on foreign soil is a smart one and has helped him save face, but having the foreign press on your back will not help you beat a sitting president. Part of the job of a presidential candidate is to act presidential. In this case Romney has failed. I am also not sure he can fully talk about his role in the 2002 Winter Olympics now. Instead he will now have to deflect any talk of the Olympics because it will bring follow up questions about his statement. This is the type of mistake that a political newcomer makes and not a veteran like Romney. So much for using the Olympics to his advantage. Romney will be lucky to get a participation ribbon in November if he keeps this up.

What does Obama do after the Bain attacks?

Well, round one has been won by the president. The Bain attacks have been effective and have unnerved Mitt Romney.While Bain will be a part of his stump speech for the rest of the summer, Obama needs a second act. The narrative that they are trying to build is that Romney is rich, out of touch and he will outsource jobs. This caricature makes Romney look like a mixture of the Ebenezer Scrooge and Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. While painting this type of picture will get attention and rally your base, it still doesn't offer a plan for America. The old one-two punch I would suggest would be a plan to bring jobs back to America by offering major tax breaks. Maybe they can work in the theme like "From India to Indiana"? A two prong attack like this would have Romney reeling. It will be interesting to see what Romney does to counter these attacks since he has done little so far. No Mitt, you can't just call the president Un-American or say he will raise taxes. You need to find a little more substance and create your own picture of the president. I think a Jimmy Carter analogy might work some or you might want to go shining city upon a hill. Either way, Romney needs to do more or this won't be close. No matter how much money he raises.

Where are the fireworks?

At this point in the 2008 election we were already months into 527 ad's and Jeremiah Wright. I'm not saying that negative attacks are good for public discourse, but they do make things interesting. They can also prove that the other side has no facts to use and they only want to muddy the waters. Looking at the polls things appear to be close, so maybe playing it safe is the right thing to do until you need to go negative. Another thing to think about is that fireworks don't always have to be negative. Where's the beef? It's the economy stupid! Catch phrases like that define campaigns and go down in history. This is a message for the PR people in the Romney and Obama camps. Make this election interesting.

Chief Justice Roberts is just getting started

Those who were surprised, pleased or disagreed with Chief Justice Roberts ruling need to realize that he is still at the beginning of his career. In other words, this is not the last time you will be shocked or overjoyed. Taking a look back at his predecessor Chief Justice William Rehnquist you will see how many important decisions can be made over a career. With a career on the bench that spanned from Roe v. Wade to Bush v. Gore, Rehnquist was right in the middle of historic national debates? Does the healthcare ruling set the tone for the Roberts court? Will it be the lone time that he sides with liberal policy? These are all questions that remain to be answered over the next few decades. One thing that seems to be clear at this point is that his motives do not seem to be personal. Which in itself should comfort all Americans, even if you disagree with his ruling.