Obama the cage fighter and Romney the delicate puncher

The "Romney for president" folks keep promising a new, supercharged phase of the campaign that will launch their stalled candidate on a trajectory straight to the White House.

The “reboot” suggests something big and bold. But there’s a problem: Republican strategists have decided the public — and, particularly, undecided moderate voters — like President Obama too much to smack him rhetorically with two fists.

While Mitt Romney walks that semantic tightrope in a new television ad and on the stump, though, his opponent is walloping him with TV ads that portray the Republican as the hopelessly out-of-touch rich guy. The Obama attacks, making ample use of Romney’s dismissive remarks about the “victim” 47%, give the appearance the president is fighting a cage match, while Romney jabs away, judiciously, with his 16-ounce gloves.

It’s hard to believe that the Republican’s plan to fight nice will last all the way to election day, when he continues to get pushed around the ring. The most fervent partisans already are pleading with Romney to quit dancing around and charge straight at the Current Ocupant. For now, we have an asymmetrical fight. This is how it looked Wednesday:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-obama-romney-campaign-tactics-20120927,0,1823647.story