Opinion: Democrats ready to jump on Mitt Romney, which may hurt his VP chances

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DENVER -- Throughout this week, the chatter in both Democratic and Republican camps was that Mitt Romney would emerge as John McCain’s choice for a running mate -- a feeling intensified by the presence here of the former Massachusetts governor as a lead Republican attack dog.

One could also sense that, as many leading Democrats previewed the attack lines that would be used against him, they couldn’t wait for McCain to pick Romney, And perhaps, if Romney doesn’t make the final cut, the focus in Denver on his potential vulnerabilities would help explain why.

At a briefing earlier this week, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, was asked about the possible heft Romney could add to the GOP ticket on the economic front (one of McCain’s weak points).

Plouffe, referring to business decisions by Romney that included worker layoffs, called him ‘a job-killing machine.’ One could already envision that phrase anchoring a TV ad.

Ace political observer Charlie Cook writes in the National Journal that James Carville, holding forth Wednesday, said that his goal in selecting a running mate would be to ‘make the opposing campaign manager throw up. I don’t think if they pick Romney, [Obama campaign strategist] David Axelrod will reach for the trash can.’

Cook himself opines that the chances of Obama’s vice presidential pick, Joe Biden, ‘mopping up the floor with Romney on national security issues would seem to be high enough to send McCain strategists back to the drawing board if Romney was the preferred choice. ‘

And just as Republicans have eagerly used Hillary Clinton’s words against Obama, there was a wealth of harsh, dismissive statements about McCain emanating from the Romney camp during the GOP primary fight that the Democrats will relish recycling.

You can bet that all those e-mails have been carefully saved by Obama aides.

-- Don Frederick

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