The Romney campaign has decided to return a suppressive fire against the recent message assault by the Obama campaign by bringing up all the issues that were politically litigated in the 2008 election. Whether the president was American. “Chicago-style” politics, his time in Indonesia Pot-smoking, and Tony Rezko.

Really? First of all, this is right out of the strategist playbook presented to Joe Ricketts, the billionaire owner of the Chicago Cubs. A playbook, that when revealed publicly in May, Mitt Romney and other Republicans swiftly denounced. This plan “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama,” besides being catchy and to the point, suggested that the reason McCain lost against then-candidate Obama was that McCain didn’t hit Obama hard enough on issues like Bill Ayers, Reverend Wright and Tony Rezko. Apparently under pressure, just like in the Republican primaries when his challengers started to get traction, Romney swallows his pride and goes mean and negative.

But this isn’t the way. Not for sentimental or justice reasons of fairness about character attacks. This stuff is simply old news. Old news is not shocking, mind changing news. For instance, even though the repercussions to soldiers, budgets and foreign policy are ongoing, no one wants to re-litigate the reasons we went to war in Iraq. At some point, unless you got something new to talk about at the meeting about old business, people are ready to move on to new business.

Unless this is to simply create enough noise to get the media to walk way from the whole issue about disclosing taxes, the only thing you do with this argument is satisfy the base who is already going to vote for you. Mission accomplished. Actually, mission been accomplished. In fact all you are doing now is turning off the small margin of swing voters, who know the president – he’s been in office almost 4 years. He’s the known commodity, so character attacks don’t work. But what would work is a candidate offers a better, understandable economic alternative. That’s “new business” yet, something the Romney campaign doesn’t want to seem to lay out.

Yea, yea, you’re a businessman. So what? Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge and George Bush, our first MBA president. All three considered enablers of most horrible economic conditions in modern US history, the great depression and the Wall Street collapse. So you’re need more than that. Get a plan! Elections are won by two things.  Conveying confidence. And the person who can give a more enticing vision of the future.  That doesn’t come by re-litigating the past.