Why is the Romney campaign stuck in neutral?

When it comes to campaign organizations, few are more puzzling than Mitt RomneyMitt Romney's.

Since the beginning of the 2012 Republican battle for the White House, frontrunner Mitt Romney has been struggling to hold on to a narrow lead in the polls. Like a leaky faucet, the Romney campaign is in a steady but annoying drip-mode that never seems to get better or worse.

Is the problem his campaign, or is Romney just too mainstream to satisfy the right-wing fringe?

Campaigns are nothing but a sales pitch. Like any product, if packaged right, it can be sold to millions. By all accounts, Romney should be well on his way to a face-off with President Obama. Instead, he is struggling to fight off Newt Gingrich, who is much more mainstream, coming from the Ronald Reagan school of centrist republican politics. And lets not forget, Reagan began his political career as a Democrat, until he switched sides to the GOP in 1962.

Despite Romney's fragile lead, he may be running the worst campaign in the 2012 presidential race, and spin control appears to Romney's biggest problem.

At a recent stump speech in Florida, Romney told a Lehigh Acres crowd that "Banks aren't bad people. They're just overwhelmed right now," because they have so many foreclosures to deal with.

Taking the side of the banks in a state with one of the worst foreclosure problems in the country, may not be the smartest move for a candidate. But Romney always seems comfortable taking the side of big business, instead of the voters he is trying to win over. It sends a message of disconnect with 99% of Americans.

Add to that his recent admission through the release of his tax returns, that he earned more than $21 million in 2010, and only paid 15% in taxes by using loopholes to cut his personal tax bill. Romney's millionaire tax break does not send a message of fairness to families that had to give 25% of their income to the IRS.

This is not what the unemployed, the poor, and those facing foreclosure want to hear from the next potential GOP presidential nominee.

A better campaign staff would reign in Romney and keep him on his talking points. However, that does not seem to be happening.

While it is probably impossible for the Romney campaign to hide all the skeletons in his closet, by far the worst shadow is from Bain Capital.

"In October 1993, Bain Capital, co-founded by Mitt Romney, became majority shareholder in a steel mill that had been operating since 1888... The old mill, renamed GS Technologies, needed expensive updating, and demand for its products was susceptible to cycles," according to Business Insider.

"Less than a decade later, the mill was padlocked and some 750 people lost their jobs. Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they'd been promised, and their pension benefits were cut by as much as $400 a month. What's more, a federal government insurance agency had to pony up $44 million to bail out the company's underfunded pension plan. Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees."

Unlike Republican hero Ronald Reagan, who was known as the "teflon president," every word Mitt Romney utters seems to stick to him like glue.

The best campaigns are all about damage control, and Romney does not appear to have much going for him in that department. That's not to say that he still cannot win the GOP nomination. However, it is more likely that if Mitt Romney had a better behind-the-scenes political operation, he would be 30 or 40 points ahead in the polls, instead of having every other candidate breathing down his neck on the eve of every new primary.

Sources:

LA Times

Business Insider

PolitiFact

USA Today