The slash and burn Saul Alinsky tactics, that all knew were coming from the Obama campaign, have arrived with a vengeance.  No one, least of all the Romney campaign, should have been surprised.   The purpose of this attack is to try and cement an image of Romney in the minds of swing voters in key battleground states. 

That is an old and well worn strategy that has been successfully used in the past by many candidates running for office and inevitably begins three to four months before an election.  None of this is a surprise.

Why then was the Romney campaign not better prepared, and ready with a withering counter-attack against someone with not only a woeful record in office but one with innumerable skeletons in his past that have only come to light in the past three years?  A personal biography of fabrications, radical beliefs and rank immaturity.  Many people are not aware of much of this record and it would have been, and still could be devastating to Obama's re-election chances.

Perhaps the reason lies in the modern day Republican character flaw: civility.  Inevitably in a primary battle the antagonists are willing to pummel each other, but when a winner emerges and there is a Democrat to face, suddenly the urge to be "civil" takes over.   This genetic defect was instrumental in the defeat of Gerald Ford in 1976, George H.W. Bush in 1992, Bob Dole in 1996, and John McCain in 2008.

Mitt Romney thus far appears to be suffering from the same malady.  He foolishly opened himself up to ridicule by asking the Obama team for an apology for their implication that he, Romney, could be a felon and for some inexplicable reason he suggest to Obama that he reign in his re-election team.  This group of political assassinations just does what they are told by Obama, who has run a slash and burn campaign for every political office he has ever sought.

All Mitt Romney accomplished was to look weak and foolish, which could be overlooked at another time and place.

However, in 2012 the stakes are, by a geometric proportion, much higher than they have been since 1860.  If Barack Obama wins re-election the United States as we know it will cease to exist.  It can be said, without equivocation that the fate of the nation lies in Mitt Romney's hands.  But does he and his team understand that?

Last month Steve McCann on the page of American Thinker wrote: ()

Excessive civility in the face of a national crisis is tantamount to indifference.  This may have been fine in the halcyon days of the past, when America's future seemed limitless and those answering the call of duty were for the most part honorable people.  With Barack Obama at the helm, that is no longer the case.

Never in American history has the nation been saddled with such an unethical and ideologically rigid administration, whose ultimate goal is to tear apart the fabric of society and to recast the United States into the rigid socialist model originally formulated in Italy of the 1920's and '30's.

There are still 112 days until the election, there is time of to offset whatever damage the tidal wave of negative ads run by the Obama team may have done to Mitt Romney's image and reputation.  But Romney must begin now to seriously and vigorously counter attack, leaving no legitimate line of attack out of bounds, and most of all understand what he is up against as well as his role in American history.  This is no time for civility.