Here is the real difference between Romney and McCain. In 08 McCain publicly condemned the Jeremiah Wright / Saul Alinksky stuff. He also put pressure behind the scenes on the pacs and surrogates not to run with it. He made it clear privately that he didn’t want it. In ‘04 Bush publicly condemned the Swift Boat line of attack, but behind the scenes the Swift Boaters got a wink, a nod and a thank you. Romney is not McCain.
McCain used the same “polite” tactics during the general that he used during the primaries.
Hopefully Romney will employ his same goon squad to kneecap Obama that he used during the primaries...while he gets hover above the fray.