I think a pattern is starting to emerge.
Democrats note that Republicans are trying to buy the election, so Republicans accuse Democrats of trying to buy the election. Democrats point to Mitt Romney's vague agenda, so Romney accuses Democrats of having a vague agenda. Democrats criticize the GOP's "war on women," so the GOP accuses Democrats of waging a "war on women." Dems call Romney an out-of-touch elitist, so Romney accuses Dems of out-of-touch elitism.
And President Obama's campaign has characterized Romney as the "Outsourcer-in-Chief," so, well, you know what's coming.
In this new video from the RNC, the party accuses President Obama of being "the real outsourcer-in-chief." The main problem with the video, not surprisingly, is its detachment from reality -- the RNC hasn't even tried to bolster the allegations with any evidence at all, in large part because the claims appear to have been made from whole cloth.
But Romney himself is getting on the game, condemning the president today for having "encouraged American jobs to move overseas."
I don't know what GOP strategic genius thought this was a good idea. The claims are unsupported by the facts, and the response reinforces the perception that Republicans are terrified of the Democratic criticisms.
But perhaps most importantly, if the campaign descends into a debate over which candidate has engaged in more outsourcing, Romney will lose in a landslide. Businesses hired Romney to help them ship jobs abroad. Romney was a "pioneer" in "relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India."
For crying out loud, Romney's vulture-capital firm, Bain Capital, employed a "director of outsourcing."
Republicans want to get into a fight with Democrats over the evils of outsourcing? Seriously?