The Electoral Art of War by Charles M. Blow

In an attempt to put a stop to the so far successful Obama campaign, Mitt Romney decided to choose Paul Ryan, a prominent member of the Tea Party, as his running mate. This choice destroyed any chances Romney had of salvaging his campaign by focusing on the economy and instead, due to Ryan’s likely influence, it will probably focus more on attacking Obama’s policies than on tackling any real issues concerning the economy which is currently the most pertinent issue. By attacking Romney’s strength, which were issues concerning the economy, the Obama campaign pushed Romney into making a disastrous choice for a running mate, turning the scales in favor of Obama. Romney chose his running mate to try and counter Obama’s attacks on him by attacking Obama’s greatest strength, which is his likability. The Republican campaign can be considered to be hypocritical in its stance against the comments and policies of the Obama administration. When similar actions to Obama’s or Biden’s were done by members of the Republican party such as Herman Cain, there were no condemnations or comments from the ranks of the party but when the members of the Obama administration did the very same things, they were heavily criticized by the Republicans. This shows that the Republicans are selective in what they perceive to be the wrong policies, keeping quiet when it is one of their own, and making unsubstantiated comments when it is a member of a rival party. The call by the Romney campaign to stop any personal attacks during the remaining period of campaigns can be considered ironical because of the fact that it is the one which concentrated more on these personal attacks.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/16/blow-the-electoral-art-of-war/