National View: How Do You Know When a Candidate Goes Too Far?

Answer: They change the subject.

Just after the attack on the Libyan consulate, Mitt Romney accused the President of being apologetic in his response.  This ignited some pretty heated backlash, including from other Republicans.

It saddens me that someone acknowledging reality, despite party affiliation, is remarkable.  But never mind that just now.

Romney knows he went too far in trying to appeal to the militant right wing here in America, and we can tell because he's not talking about the Libya attack or any other Muslim unrest.

This bothers me more than a little.  As President, would be able to ignore one of the major foreign policies crises of the last 6 months?  "Well, I muffed that--time to focus on education reform for a while."  A sitting President doesn't have the luxury of changing their focus.

What I see out of this whole mess is a candidate trying to fire up his base--the people who hate that black bleeding heart in the White House.  By accusing Obama of not defending the American way of life, of being ashamed of American values like freedom of speech, Romney's just trying to piss off our own reactionary radicals.  The ones who don't necessarily like Romney, but will vote for him if they're sure a vote for Obama is a vote for evil.

Romney doesn't have the first idea how he'd react to such a wide-spread problem.  Those who can, do.  Those who can't, throw up smoke screens.  You can strengthen yourself, or weaken your obstacle--and I think it's pretty clear how Romney approaches his problems.