Romney's campaign asks Florida Republican governor to curb his enthusiasm over economic gains

By Richard K. Barry

I love this one: Bloomberg is reporting that Florida Governor Rick Scott is being asked to curb his enthusiasm over improving job numbers in his state because it clashes with the presumptive GOP presidential "nominee's message that the nation is suffering under President Barack Obama."

It seems Scott has been asked to say that the "state's jobless rate could improve faster under a Romney presidency."

The larger issue is how Republican governors in presidential battleground states like Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia, in which economies are improving, can take credit for the good news while also faulting Obama in some way.

I grasp the preference of Romney's campaign that the governors temper their excitement, though that is what, in politics, they call a mixed message. I suspect these Republican governors are going to want to stay positive and uplifting, which works better as a messaging approach.

Mitt Romney does strike me as the kind of guy who wants everything both ways: all things bad are Obama's doing; all things good have nothing to do with him.

Nice trick.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)