The most frustrating thing about the “Bain attack” on Romney has been his .timid defense. He’s whiffed so far.   You’ve got to hand it to Obama for performing yet another feat of political jujitsu. Faced with the dreary prospect of defending his economic record, for now at least he’s turned the campaign into a debate over the allegation that Mitt Romney practiced capitalism.   Day after day the high priests of journalism pore over the ancient scrolls indicating whether or not Romney was spending all of his time rescuing the Olympics 12 years ago or whether he was secretly still involved in running Bain. The conclusions are blasted out to the waiting masses. Amazing. Of course he couldn’t pull it off without the cooperation of the sycophantic press corp but his Greek chorus is totally reliable.   It shouldn’t have been so hard to handle. After all, Romney used his own money and money he raised to save firms like Staples, which produces unsubsidized products people actually want and has helped other firms to achieve success too. Obama wasted billions of taxpayer funds to subsidize firms like Solyndra, paying off his buddies but achieving  only economic ruin. Romney on the net created thousands of jobs, Obama’s efforts caused massive job losses.   Instead of telling this story, Romney has hunkered into a corner. He insists he wasn’t at Bain after 1989 instead of pointing out what Bain really did. He claims that Obama outsourced too, that Obama has accepted contributions from Bain employees, blah, blah, blah. Some principled defense.   Romney is worrisome. A leader confidently believes in himself and doesn’t melt under an ideological barrage. Does Mitt really have the stuff to deserve to win this election?