Romney's Staff Destroying His Chances

Mitt Romney's campaign keeps shooting itself in the foot, and the GOP frontrunner may have passed the point of no return, writes John Cassidy in the New Yorker. After last week's blunders, Cassidy has finally had to admit "that trying to rescue Romney’s presidential bid may be a hopeless task." Cassidy calls Eric Fehrnstrom's "Etch a Sketch" gaffe the primaries' "defining moment." Silly statements by tired candidates are understandable, he writes. By a staffer? "Unforgivable." It's likely to follow Romney for the rest of the election, and it was only misstep No. 1 of the week.

No. 2: His campaign reacted to a 22-point loss in Louisiana by calling Rick Santorum "pathetic." This smart move would have been to say congrats, "point out that it wasn’t a state you expected to win, and get the heck out of there." Unfortunately, his campaign is staffed with "bozos [who] couldn’t resist taking some potshots at Santorum ... a back-room staff that would have difficulty contesting a city-council election." And that's a problem, because Romney will likely face "an improving economy, an incumbent president with great rhetorical skills," and "an Obama campaign operation that, on recent evidence, is far superior" to his own. The ex-governor's only real advantage is financial—and that's an advantage President Obama can trump. Click through for Cassidy's full reflections on the Romney mess. (More John Cassidy stories.)