WAITING FOR THE USEFUL IDIOTS TO STOP BEING SO USEFUL

In response to all the Bain attacks on Mitt Romney, Andrew Sullivan declares that Romney could still lose, because of what voters are now hearing about him:

But what makes it so dangerous to Romney, it seems to me, is that the Bain Brahmin didn't just fire thousands of working class people in restructuring and in closing companies. He made a fucking unimaginable fortune doing it. That's the issue. Other Republicans can speak about the need for free markets in a sluggish economy. But with Romney, we have a singular example of someone who made a quarter of a billion dollars by firing the white middle and working class in droves in ways that do not seem designed to promote growth or efficiency, but merely to enrich Bain.

To which I say: White working-class Republican voters, if this upsets you, what the hell do you think you've been voting for for the past thirty (forty? forty-five?) years?

Over at The New Republic, William Galston lists several reasons why Bain is trouble for Romney and could "kill his candidacy":

The only thing surprising about this issue is how late in the day it took center-stage. After all, an increasing number of blue-collar workers have become Republicans or Republican-leaning independents. The Tea Party movement is hardly sympathetic to Wall Street and the financial sector. And a key element of the Republican base -- small business -- has long regarded the corporate/establishment wing of the party with suspicion. As a populist whipping-boy, Romney is straight out of central casting.

Yes, but all three of those groups love the GOP regardless of the actual consequences. Small business owners would rather throw in their lot with Republicans and the Chamber of Commerce than with those horrible overregulating socialist Democrats -- even if big business gets nearly all of the benefit from the GOP alliance. White working-class voters get patriotic wars, abortion restrictions, and small tax cuts from the GOP, as well as a heartland-vs.-elites culture war that's exciting and inspirational, and don't seem to care that the economy that emerges from Republican rule never really serves their needs. And don't get me started on the tea party, which, as I've said many times, hates big business and Wall Street only for allying with (ick! pthui!) government, and ascribes 100% of the blame for the financial meltdown to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

These voting blocs have never identified the real enemy before. Why should we think they're going to get it now?