OUTRAGEOUS – AT 10:25 A.M. ET:  We have to grapple each day with outrageously bad journalism, such as yesterday's whopper at ABC News, when Brian Ross tried to link the Colorado shooter to the Tea Party.  (He later apologized.)

Today The Politico, which has been tilting increasingly left, tries to outdo itself by informing us that Mitt Romney's upcoming overseas trip is a lifesaving operation.  Get this:

It’s a sign of just how tough a time Mitt Romney has had of late that his aides are anxious to thrust him into the Middle East peace process.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee won’t, of course, be negotiating land for peace or doing any real diplomacy when he jets to Jerusalem next week. But balancing meetings with the Israelis and Palestinians, or really just about any change of subject, is preferable to what the Republican has been grappling with over the last two weeks.

Starting next Wednesday, Romney’s trip to Great Britain, Israel and Poland couldn’t come at a better time.
Some political observers questioned his decision to leave the campaign trail to spend a week at the Olympics and posing for photo ops with foreign leaders, yet Romney’s journey now seems to offer a welcome respite from perhaps his roughest patch yet of the general election.

Battered for two weeks by questions over when he left Bain Capital and why he won’t release more years of income tax returns, Romney has an opportunity to rise above the campaign grind and play statesman-in-waiting.

COMMENT:  Is that a serious story?  In fact, Romney's trip was announced months ago.  And while Romney has been vigorously attacked in the last few weeks, polls show the attacks haven't made a dent.  Indeed, it was Obama's incredible comment – revealing his true beliefs – that Americans who start businesses aren't responsible for their success, that was the biggest political story of recent days.  Republicans are having a field day with Obama's own words, and those words are haunting the president.

It is the assigned role of a biased press to portray Romney as a weak, incompetent candidate, and it is playing that role.  Oh, and by the way, another Politico writer, Maggie Haberman, couldn't resist getting in another jab – claiming that Democrats see Romney's trip to Israel as an attempt by Bibi Netanyahu to interfere in an American presidential election.  In fact, American politicians go to Israel all the time.  It's a routine stop.  In New York we sometimes call it the "three I" tour – Ireland, Italy, and Israel, although Romney will be hitting Poland this time. 

We've said before that a biased press is one of Romney's great challenges.  He has to learn to deal with it the way Reagan did, by speaking over the heads of the media and directly to the American people.

July 21, 2012