The Obama campaign and its supporters have been incredibly aggressive, vicious even, in going after Romney and trying to define him as out of touch and elitist. Many attacks have been fair — others not so — but they may be beginning to stick. According to a recent report in The New York Times, “President Obama has spent more campaign cash more quickly than any incumbent in recent history.”

The Obama campaign seems to be gambling that if it defines Romney early in the minds of voters, no amount of late spending by Romney and the massive “super PACs” that support him will be able to undo it. The theory is simple really: It’s impossible to separate the soda from the sugar when it’s already baked into the cake. This is not at all unlike what Karl Rove and George W. Bush did to John Kerry in 2004, and it worked. Of course, that Obama and his advisers would parrot Bush and Rove is a delicious irony. (It should be pointed out that at this point in the 2004 campaign, Kerry’s favorability rating was actually higher than Bush’s, and he still lost. Romney’s favorability has never been higher than Obama’s and recently has been moving in a downward direction.)

The electorate is suffering a crippling crisis of confidence in the candidate. When Fox News asked respondents: “Regardless of how you would vote, how comfortable would you be with Mitt Romney as president?” only 26 percent said extremely or very comfortable. Seventy-one percent of those polled said that they would be only somewhat comfortable or not comfortable at all. When asked to give the main reason for their discomfort, the No. 1 reason was his position on issues, but reasons No. 2 and 3 were that he’s phony or dishonest and he’s out of touch. By comparison, 41 percent of respondents said that they would be extremely or very comfortable with Obama as president for four more years. Being phony or dishonest appears eighth on the list of reasons people gave for saying they were not comfortable or only somewhat comfortable with Obama, and being out of touch didn’t even register. Furthermore, when CNN asked respondents, regardless of whom they supported, who they thought would win in November, they favored Obama over Romney by nearly two to one.