Reporter's Note: President Obama is throwing some haymakers at Mitt Romney, who has started throwing them back.

Dear Mr. President,

As you know, I’ve long been a fan of boxing and I’m always amazed when one fighter tees off on the other with a direct shot and the other guy comes away as if he was not even touched.

I know it has to hurt the guy who is being hit, but sometimes I think the effect of something like that is worse on the puncher than the punchee. Can you imagine how demoralizing that must be? “I hit him with a haymaker and it produced no effect!”

I mention it, of course, because for all the very energetic and focused attempts by your campaign to throw Mitt Romney down over his time at Bain Capital, the poll numbers suggest that you’ve not had a lot of impact. You’re both pretty much tied. The numbers, if they are moving at all, don’t seem to be surging in the direction you might expect after such an attack.

Mind you, I’m not discussing here the wisdom or foolishness of the strategy; I’m just saying the results must be a little daunting for your team.

Take heart. It is possible you’ll still see a result. This whole business of defining your opponent before he can fully define himself is usually a pretty solid tactic.

On the other hand, there is still a fair amount of time between now and November, and if your Bain gambit doesn’t start showing some real results soon, I suspect you’d better have some other punch in your repertoire, or that ring could turn into a rough place…at least rougher than it already is.

Call if you can. Hope you have a nice weekend.

Regards,
Tom