"The public doesn't like corporate raiders"

We've had a spate of stories chez La Maison Chez Nous (at our place) about how the Romney campaign is in serious trouble. All have done extremely well, reader-wise. I think I agree with Paul Krugman who wrote in one of them that "Romney is in the process of getting defined."
But defined as what?

You and I, we think about stuff. So these Bain Capital lying-with-a-point stories make sense to us.

But could you explain the Bain problem in one phrase to the average Jack and Jill whose Tuesday voting is squeezed between two or three jobs, several kids, and aging parental (and American Idol) worries? Until now, I'm not sure I could.

But here's Howie Klein to do the deed, in a great catch of something written by David Frum. The phrase we're looking for is Corporate raider and David Frum supplies it.

First Klein on what Frum doesn't get (my emphasis and paragraphing throughout):

Frum doesn't seem to see the importance of the controversy swirling around Romney's time at Bain as being a real character issue, something that is helping voters understand what kind of man Romney essentially is.

[Romney's] legalistic but thoroughly deceitful and opportunistic filings and excuses for filings with government boards tells voters far more about him than the fact he's a Mormon bishop or a happily married man with a pack of sons who refused to serve in the military or wealthy enough to have a dancing horse and a new elevator for his car collection.

Then he quotes Frum. Notice (say I) what Frum does get:

Non-college whites may dislike Barack Obama, but they don’t like corporate raiders either.

In the repugican primaries of both 2008 and 2012, Romney consistently lost among repugicans earning less than $100,000 per year. (Back in 2008, Romney’s populist rival Mike Huckabee quipped, “People want to vote for somebody who reminds them of the guy they work with-- not the guy who laid them off.”)

"Corporate raider" says it all. Simple. Clean. Deadly. He's being defined as Michael Milkin. Gordon Gekko. Carl Ichan. A T-Rex predator in a world of foot-tall primates (that would be us).

Action Opportunity — you can help. "Romney the corporate raider" could be your constant characterization, you with voices (and pens). Phrases like ...

     the wine-dark sea
     rosy-fingered dawn
     swift-footed Achilles
     grey-eyed Athena
     cunning Ulysses
... these are the kinds of phrase that live a long time through sound and repetition.

Care to try to end this election now? Do to Romney what they did to Kerry and Gore. Help define him.

"Romney the corporate raider" has a nice Homeric ring to it. It's yours if you wish.

Side benefit: Ending this election now would allow us progressives to shoulder the burden of planning for the post-campaign campaign, the world of December 2012 and beyond.