Mitt's Perfect Year

I wrote about today eight months ago, in my "Year In Mitt" preview:

JULY 27, AUGUST 3: US ECONOMIC REPORTS
On July 27, the federal government will release the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) estimate for the second quarter of 2012; a week later comes the July employment report. These will be the last two major gauges of the country's economic health before Romney (assuming he's the nominee) kicks off the fall campaign at his nominating convention. If the numbers are bad, he'll want the convention to focus almost entirely on the terrible Obama economy. If the numbers are relatively good — say, more than three percent GDP growth, and unemployment below eight percent — Romney will have to go to the No Apology argument that Obama is an America-hating, terrorist-appeasing sissy.

That GDP number came out a few minutes ago, and it was 1.5%. The last unemployment number was 8.2%, and it seems very unlikely that the July number will be under eight.

For all the daily troubles and shortcomings of the candidate and the campaign, the fact is that this year has gone as well as could possibly be hoped for in Romney's election pursuit. He not only won the GOP nomination, but wrapped it up reasonably early (no expensive battles in Texas or California) without being pulled too far into crazy right-wing territory. The conservative base appears to have pretty fully lined up behind him before the convention. And, the economic recovery has stalled.

Oh, I also wrote this in that preview article:

JULY 27-AUGUST 12 | LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES | Typically, the Olympics is a quiet fortnight for the campaigns, which have no hope of getting the public's attention. But Romney is not like other presidential candidates — he is Mr. Olympics, a part of his biography that he is likely to want to emphasize over, say, Mr. Leveraged Buyout. Of course, he will insist that he doesn't want to politicize the Games or use them to any personal advantage. But, he would be a poor self-marketer to miss this opportunity to connect himself in the public mind with the most popular event in the universe. And Romney is a very, very good self-marketer.

Tune in to see . . . how much TV time Romney can take up insisting that he isn't looking for media exposure.