Romney campaign gaffe reeks of desperation

There are millions of unemployed Americans today and countless businesses which have closed up shop as Obama's economic "recovery" lurches forward. It seemed like a natural choice for GOP challenger Mitt Romney to deliver remarks critical of Obama's economic record in front of National Gypsum, a drywall plant in Lorain, Ohio, which was forced to shut down operations when the economy turned south.  The only problem: National Gypsum closed its doors four years ago during the Bush administration.

"What we're saying is, he has been given three years to turn the economy around and bring back jobs," said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams. "He has had time and hundreds of billions of dollars to turn around the economy and he has not done that."

But should Obama be linked to the Lorain plant's demise?

City officials in Lorain question whether the drywall factory – which closed during the George W. Bush administrationbecause of a construction industry slump -- could appropriately be used to illustrate that message.

"When you have to clean up a mess that was created over eight years, you will not get it done in four," said Lorain City Council President Joel Arredondo, a Democrat who attended Obama's Wednesday speech. "After four years, we are better off than we were before."

And just like that, an opportunity to draw attention to Obama's abysmal economic record becomes fodder for Democratic talking points about Obama's "inherited" crisis from a Republican administration.  The election is way too close to be making careless mistakes like this -- especially in a swing state like Ohio -- and if Romney keeps this up, the GOP has virtually no chance of retaking the White House in November.

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