I haven’t spent too much time here lately; been dealing with some things I’ll perhaps mention in a later post. That said, whenever I’ve gone online the past few days I’ve been overwhelmed with the feeling I’m swimming upstream against a torrent of tears shed by those who are utterly convinced all is lost because Mitt Romney won the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.

Really?

According to these harbingers of doom, the attacks from his own side on Romney over his time at Bain Capital, for which he is being portrayed as the archtypical eeeeevil greedy capitalist foreclosing on the orphanage’s mortgage in the middle of a winter storm, will be the bane of his campaign should he in fact win the nomination. What’s more, anyone who endorses Romney — be it Nikki Haley or John Bolton or Jim DeMint’s people — is immediately cast out of the kingdom, banished for the crime of being a RINO establishment squish. No, really, they mean that. Especially that Bolton guy. He’s been such a marshmallow his entire career… and please tell me you don’t need me to tell you I’m being sarcastic. But I digress.

One of the complaints being lodged against Romney is that his defense of his time at Bain centers on the argument that he did the same thing there that Obama did with General Motors and Chrysler, realizing that in order to save a troubled company ofttimes it is necessary to cut labor costs by trimming the workforce. How can you possibly use that line of reasoning, comes the cry. Don’t you know you’re playing right into Obama’s hands by failing to differentiate between the two of you? Don’t you remember how Obama closed numerous car dealerships, the overwhelming majority of which were owned or operated by businesspeople associated with the Republican party? Don’t you remember how he screwed over the investors in these companies, many of them public and private pension funds, in favor of keeping the UAW’s fatcat unsustainable benefits plan rolling along? How then can you, under any circumstances, compare what you did to Obama’s actions?

Here’s why, and how. (Before I get into it, please not I’m not supporting Romney in the primary. Rick Santorum is my candidate.)

It’s high time people give Romney credit for having both a brain and common sense, each of which tell you that you don’t run a marathon at a sprinter’s pace. The primaries are just that — primaries. They come first. They also have little effect on the general election, which as some have apparently forgotten isn’t until November and to which most people don’t start paying attention until September. Why waste your energy, and spend the finite amount of capital campaign arguments/proposals carry, now? Do enough to win the nomination. Then step on the gas.

Romney is more than intelligent enough to soft-pedal his attacks on Obama until the majority of people are listening, which isn’t now. He is more than savvy enough to wait until a debate with Obama before letting loose with a lethal “but”let, a follow-up shot to his present defense: “Here are the things I did that you did. Now, here are the things you did I didn’t — play political games and reward your friends at the expense of hard-working Americans whose pension funds holders were hookwinked into investing in these companies you bailed out with taxpayer dollars, then cheated out of not only the promised profits from these investments but the initial investments themselves. I didn’t do that, Mr. President. But you did.”

Mitt’s keeping his powder dry until he needs it. Too bad so many are throwing theirs into their self-created river of woe.

P.S. Speaking of harbingers of doom, it’s a line from this classic track by Toy Matinee:

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ADDENDUM: Cross-posted at Conservative Commune.