Romney gets a tribute of sorts in NYT opinion pages

The editorial and op-eds prominently featured in the New York Times today all deal with Mitt Romney. And, as fate would have it, not a single one of them is positive.

President Obama is hardly mentioned in a single one of the articles. When he is, it's to frame the state of Romney's campaign (the collective conclusion is that it's bad).

Unsigned editorial: "To some extent, Mr. Romney’s diminishing stature is because of two recent statements that revealed his deficiencies to a newly interested audience. He falsely suggested that the Obama administration was sympathetic to the violent Muslim protests in Libya and Egypt, illustrating his ignorant and opportunistic critique of foreign policy. And he was caught on video belittling nearly half the country for an overreliance on government handouts. These moments, though, were not fumbles or gaffes. They were entirely consistent with the dismissive attitude Mr. Romney has routinely shown toward non-Americans or the nonrich. Now even long-undecided voters are starting to catch on and dismiss him."

David Brooks: "Republicans repeat formulas — government support equals dependency — that make sense according to free-market ideology, but oversimplify the real world. Republicans like Romney often rely on an economic language that seems corporate and alien to people who do not define themselves in economic terms. No wonder Romney has trouble relating."

Frank Bruni: "Throughout this campaign, [Romney] has misfired so repeatedly and phantasmagorically that his wounds make those visited upon Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway at the end of “Bonnie and Clyde” look like paper cuts

Joe Nocera: "Last week, sandwiched between Monday’s leak of the video in which Mitt Romney dismissed “the 47 percent” and Friday’s release of the Romneys’ 2011 tax returns — showing that they had paid an effective tax rate of 14 percent — Forbes magazine published its annual list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. ... One would be hard pressed to find a clearer example of how powerfully income inequality has taken root."