“Romney deserves a lot more out of his staff,” said one senior Republican operative who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They have mishandled him. It has been a clumsy campaign that lacks a message and has relied on a crutch of negative ad spending to make up for its weakness.”…

One Washington-based Republican adviser recounted an interaction in which a senior member of the Romney team, asked what the campaign planned to do to soften the class-based criticism of Romney, gave a blank look and snapped, “Nobody cares about that crap.”

“It’s clear they have some amazing blind spots,” the adviser said. “They don’t understand the flaws of their candidate and how damaging this class stuff is. They’re just not self-aware at all.” The adviser pointed to the way Romney’s taxes were released — hasty, sloppy and reactive, on an issue that should have been easy to foresee.