Romney’s Media Handicap

(By Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online) - Perhaps Mitt Romney played it right when he was meek and contrite in response to the 'Washington Post'’s front-page allegations that he bullied a kid half a century ago in high school.

Romney no doubt feels embarrassed by the charges, even if most of us struggle to understand their relevance or gauge their veracity. But the time is coming for Romney to get angry, very angry, with what is increasingly, quaintly called “the mainstream media.”

The 'Post'’s decision to play up the story as if it were major news — front page, thousands of drably dull self-serious words piled high to elevate and justify the one buzzy nugget — is an embarrassment. It was clearly intended to link Romney to the new progressive cause — fighting anti-gay bullying — in the context of President Obama’s “sudden” support for gay marriage. It was naked advocacy gussied up as journalistic due diligence.