… When I ask [Jim] Messina if Romney is a more formidable foe than McCain, he replies without blinking, “I don’t care.” … In addition to not caring about Romney’s candidate skills, he doesn’t give a whit about national polling, in which Obama’s numbers are dragged down by his horrific performance in the Deep South and Appalachia — but is obsessed with the president’s standing in the battleground states, where Obama has “a distinct advantage,” he says, “and everybody, including Mitt Romney, knows it.” [cont.]
John Heilemann, New York Magazine