There’s a zeitgeist in the air over the last few weeks, and the polls confirm it: President Obama is flailing as he comes to grips with campaigning to keep his job. Several of his 2008 states are now in play, including Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, Virginia and North Carolina. While he flails, he sinks, and Mitt Romney has emerged from a bruising primary battle looking like he could win.
The shift in the campaign is not happening by accident. The fact is, the RNC and the Romney campaign have come into the general election swinging, and swinging with great effect. With five months to go, now is no time for either panic or cockiness, but here are five things the Romney campaign and the RNC are doing right.
1. Full spectrum rapid response. The Romney/RNC team has achieved a situational awareness that stretches from old media to new media and into social media in ways that no previous Republican campaign has achieved. On the night of the Wisconsin recall, for instance, David Axelrod tweeted the Republican victory was a “bad night in Boston,” suggesting that it would not help Romney. Bloggers picked up on the Obama adviser’s delusional tweet immediately, and the Romney social media team helped push the tweet out so that it would get noticed outside conservative channels on Twitter. Attention to that tweet helped turn a bad night for the Democrats into an embarrassing night for President Obama, who had done his best to avoid any connection to the Democratic defeat there. The Romney camp is also quick on the draw with high-quality video ads that drive its messages effectively and the RNC is in perfect message sync. It took them less than a day to use President Obama’s “the private sector is doing fine” comment to turn around an effective response. They were quick to punch back in video when the Obama campaign launched its attacks on Romney’s time at Bain Capital, and they were quick again to highlight when Obama’s surrogates rejected those Bain attacks.
2. Message discipline. All the rapid response in the world doesn’t do much good if the message is all over the place or if your campaign is easily knocked off key, but so far the RNC and the Romney campaign have ruthlessly stuck to hammering Obama on the economy. Everything the campaign is saying can be tied in some way back to its slogan/lode star, “Obama isn’t working.” Wednesday’s info graphic contrasting what Romney would do differently from what Obama has said he would do is a case in point. The six points on the chart highlight some of the president’s least popular policy choices, the XL Pipeline and ObamaCare, and also highlight some more subtle storylines regarding Obama’s weaknesses, such as his lack of any serious approach to China. It paints a picture of Romney as understanding the many problems of Obama, and knowing what to do about the fact that overall and in whichever issue you choose to examine, Obama just isn’t working. The Romney campaign has also not allowed the Obama campaign’s “distraction of the week” to knock them off message or force them into the weeds. They have remained focused on the job of defeating Barack Obama by highlighting his failures.
Remember former RNC chairman Michael Steele’s near daily counterproductive gaffes and mistakes? We have heard nothing similar from current chairman Reince Priebus. He has the RNC’s message internalized and in perfect step with the Romney campaign. By contrast, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz found herself publicly criticizing President Obama recently over an issue that will hurt the president in Florida, a swing state.
3. Playing effective offense. When David Axelrod staged an event in Boston to try to embarrass Mitt Romney, Romney one-upped Axelrod by staging an event at Solyndra in California on the same day. But that wasn’t the end of the story. The Romney camp kept the details of their event so close to the vest that it caught the media unawares, creating surprise that led to strong positive coverage. Meanwhile on the other side of the country, Axelrod’s more conventional event was well publicized, which ended up backfiring on him when Romney supporters turned up to disrupt him. Axelrod is a gifted behind-the-scenes strategist but he has no flair for dealing with hecklers. He ended up handing his own campaign yet another embarrassing moment, forever memorialized on YouTube. Axelrod’s event also highlighted Obama’s growing problem with surrogates who fail to stay on message. Boston was a debacle for Obama, while Solyndra was a victory for Romney.
4. Fundraising. The Obama campaign bragged that it would be the first billion dollar campaign, but the Romney/RNC campaign is now outraising them significantly. That money is powering the three points above, and flows directly into point five. If the trend continues, it will also become part of the narrative that Obama is sinking and Romney is rising.
5. Looking like winners. It has been less than a month since Mitt Romney officially clinched the GOP nomination by winning the Texas primary on May 29. But in the weeks since then, Obama has not had one single good day. From awful jobs numbers to the “private sector is doing fine” to the debacle in Wisconsin and the raw exposed divisions within the Democratic Party over his tactics and rhetoric, Obama has been suffering a flurry of terrors. He is looking like a loser for the first time in his career, and neither he nor David Axelrod seems to know what to do about it. The June 8 press conference was supposed to right their ship, but Obama’s private sector comment just made things worse, so less than a week later the nation gets treated to…yet another speech. We’ve seen this about as often as we’ve watch Gilligan’s Island re-runs in syndication. It won’t move the needle unless Obama does something dramatic, but that would cut into his “no drama Obama” schtick and might look desperate. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, looks relaxed on the campaign trail while his message is fostering zero friction among the GOP. Romney has not made the sale yet, but no one should expect him to this early. He just has to stay on message and stay on offense through the conventions, and then come out from there looking like a plausible president with ideas for fixing the economy.
Finally, compare and contrast these two ads. The first is Obama’s “We’ve Got Your Back” radio ad that began airing this week. It’s a radio ad, so ignore the imagery.
Here is Mitt Romney’s Flag Day ad.
Which ad seems inclusive? Which ad feels like the product of a winning presidential campaign?
Obama got Osama?
The way I understand it the American intelligence organizations located Osama months before the raid and our fearless leader dithered until the last possible moment before he might move to a new undisclosed location. So BHO finally gave the order then went out for a round of golf, only showing up in the situation room at the last minute for a photo op while Seal Team Six did the hard part.
They way I understad it, Obama got nervous and ordered the attack before intelligence could locate Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Too bad the way you understand it comes only from your delusional brain and that the fact can be proven to be otherwise. Please see Leon Panetta’s handwritten Memo that proves it was Obama who gave the mission Go ahead, ordered the second chopper (which saved the mission after the first one crashed) and told Admiral McRaven to check in with obama directly if he felt the mission’s risks had some how increased before go-time
Panetta’s memo makes the President look pretty bad. The order to “get Bin Laden” is unacceptably vague: Does it mean capture Bin Laden? Kill Bin Laden? Is it vague in order to allow the President plausible deniability? The statement that the “timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands” certainly makes it seem as though the President is trying to cover his posterior, making McRaven the fall guy in case things turn out like Operation Eagle Claw.
The way I took it was that the most technologically advanced military in the history of the world was able to locate and kill a sick old man who followed a political system that has produced nothing of value in fourteen centuries and was hiding in plain sight in a mansion (read: dump) in Pakistan.
Since Osama’s death, if Muslims now want to be our friends, I’m not aware of it.
The Navy Seals did a great job and are to be commended but I’m not aware that any thing has changed except that Obama and his worshipers run around singing “Ding, dong Osama’s dead”, ding dong Osama’s dead”.
But to what end? Is America safer? Is the world safer?
The way I heard it, our intelligence community found Usama’s driver and watched him till he led us to Usama. Usama may have been a sick old man, but a man who fomented and organized a “community” of fellow muslims to kill thousands of Americans wherever he could find them, including civilians on our own soil as they went to work. The intelligence gathered from his compound would have been very helpful in finding additional plotters against the US had not Mr. Wonderful announced that Usama’s computer had been retrieved in the operation. Also the Navy Seals apparently will publish a book on the operation and from the previews, our man, Mr. Obama, was not the one who initiated the operation. It was Panetta and Obama was dragged into the situation room from the golf course to witness this success. His only success as President. We desperately need new leadership. NOW.
Muslims our friends? That’s a delusion. They will never be our friends unless we all become Muslims and live under sharia.
The truth is, Romney got Osama. He was working aggressively behind the scenes for the past few years to get Osama, unbeknownst to the American public. Romney has also been working hard for the middle class through Bain Capital and has made a lot of employees filthy rich over the years. He actually has kept very little for himself, something that is also unknown to the public.
Great article, Bryan.
The Romney flag ad is fantastic – and accurate. It captures precisely the way so many of us feel about it and this country. The contrast between Romney and Barry is, as you note, striking.
Meanwhile, I will follow Barry’s advice: FORWARD. I plan to “forward” the heck out of links to this and several other recent articles. Keep up the good work.
Therein lies a basic contradiction in message. If you’re going to cry like the Wisconsin cry guy about money in politics, you can’t also use money as an indicator of popularity.
D’oh.
If you’re going to cry like the Wisconsin cry guy about money in politics, you can’t also use money as an indicator of popularity.
Republican don’t object to “money in politics”, and neither do the Democrats. Republicans do object to the taxpayers being forced to fund the Democratic party, which is what mandatory union dues amount to.
OBAMA: ALL HE TALKS IS ABOUT HOW MUCH MONEY HE GETS……AS HE HAS NOTHING ELSE TO TALK ABOUT….
Bryan – Check out this piece in Commentary Contentions by Alana Goodman. In particular, check out the 2012 ad by Romney and the 2008 by Obama. Is mimicry the highest form of flattery?
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/06/14/romney-attack-ad-obama/
Obama is losing his base and Romney is building his.
That has the down arrow for the Donks and the up arrow for the GOP.
But swing states and independents are major targets…and don’t get cocky is absolutely the phrase to keep repeating.
It is only June.
The Propaganda and Lies Ministry hasn’t even broken a sweat yet. Dirty tricks, slander and fabrications are their specialty.
The message to swing states and independents should be “After 3 and a half years, shouldn’t we be past the hoping stage and into the changing stage by now? After no change in unemployment, no change in debt management, no change in racial harmony, no change in no produced budget, no change in Washington, we are long past just hoping. Since we weren’t given change that was promised, we’ll make one ourselves in November. Hope…you hear us now”
I heard Romney say something in a speech. Too low key, wish it were out there in ads along with the message you articulated. Obama said he’d be looking at a one-term proposition if he didn’t get the economy turned around in three years. So now his goal is to paint the economy as “doing fine.” Pointing out that it wasn’t a gaffe but part of Obama’s usual War on Reality. People hate it when someone tries to bamboozle them! Why isn’t this being targeted in Romney’s ads?
About all that Obama can run on is “4 years of failure isn’t enough!”
“Hope and Change” We’ve seen plenty of change from Obama. All bad. Higher unemployment and more people out of the work force or unable to enter in the first place, higher debt, more racial tension, etc. This country can’t survive another 4 years of Obama’s “change”. The only “hope” he can promise is his vacating the White House permanently instead of just for golfing and fund raising and what ever else he’s doing that has nothing to do with running the country. Feel sorry for Romney because winning will mean having to waste so much time cleaning up Obama’s disasters with no help from the out of control MSM and left wing democrats.
Romney and his people are going to have their hands full the next couple of months keeping up with the dirty politics being used against them. They need to stay positive and keep the spotlights on the slime.
Both ads are short on specifics and speak more to the spirit of each campaign, which is fine. So we’re comparing apples to apples here.
Romney’s is peacefully uplifting and uniting. It doesn’t imply that everything will be coming up roses, but that our principles will help us ALL triumph in the end. I also thought about the black guy who said his children’s lives will be better than his, just like his was better than his father’s, and his father’s life better than his grandpa’s… no doubt! But I wonder how many black men can say the same- some families may have already seen their peak and now are witness to a steady decline.
Obama’s is divisive, and showcases an us-against-them struggle. It does not argue from founding principles. When I heard it, I thought, “Damn, I’m tired of fighting.” After all, “We’ve got your back..” against whom? Why, other Americans. I’m so fed up with this line of thinking- surely most Americans must have an inkling of how counterproductive it is. Obama has been, by far, the most deliberately divisive President in recent history. As my husband said the other day, “He’s supposed to be the leader of us all.” I don’t think Obama looks at it that way.
Yes, I’m sure number one on Obama’s to-do list each day is to protect the world-wide black community against White racism — if, of course, that doesn’t interfere with his golf game or his vacation plans.
I agree, Obama has been so divisive that America has completely lost all of our freedoms in the time he’s been at the helm. Even China is enjoying much more freedom than what we are facing under this Divider-in-Chief. I have never seen in all of my life how much our Constitution has been trampled on by one single man. The Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves by how much this man has defiled America like no other presidents before him has done. America has lost its shine and has lost all credibility worldwide. The foundation of Capitalism has been destroyed. Only Romney can restore the foundation of Capitalism back in America because this is what we are and this is what we truly deserve. We need to support and bring strength back to our job creators and allow them the time to regrow and trickle it down. No matter how long it takes, we all must have the hope to wait for it.
There are areas of concern. Romney is silent on the Law of the Sea Treaty,too many RINOs are for it (McCain, Lugar, Murkowski) so far only 27 Rs have committed to Senator DeMint that they will oppose it. Romney should lead on this and oppose it, we don’t need anymore redistribution of wealth via the UN or cede US sovereignty. If you are not familiar with it, please educate yourself and call your senators, this will be a Lame Duck vote driven by John Kerry and outgoing Dick Lugar
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/backdoor-kyoto-protocol-sen-demint-warns-of-hidden-threat-to-american-sovereignty/
He is silent on reform of Freddie Mac / Fannie Mae, I’m tired of POTUS saying over and over again how the financial crisis was caused by Bush, there was plenty of blame to go around but the foundation for the collapse was prior to Bush, if you haven’t read Recklass Endangerment, you will be amazed what you learn. Who is James A. Johnson? What amendment did Chris Dodd quietly insert into the 1991 law FDICIA,it was introduced suddenly in the Senate markup, no hearings, no prior notice. Tim Geithner presided over the Federal Reserve of NY during the years prior to the crisis and he said all was well, no housing bubble existed…I could go on and on, why the GOP silence? Most Americans believe POTUS when he says the collapse is all the fault of Bush, Frank, Dodd and many others played a huge part in the collapse.
Romney needs to use interview opportunities, speeches, town halls, etc to educate voters.
Oops, my bad, just noticed a typo
Reckless Endangerment by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner is the book I recommend to understand what triggered the 2008 financial collapse.
I agree Romney should put out a press release opposing the law of the sea treaty. It might put some backbone into the GOP senate. It should not be one of the centerpieces of his campaign though, since it is not well known, and it looks like an issue that Ron Paul would be talking about, rather than a bread and butter thing that everybody can understand.
Yes, he SHOULD do all those things, but don’t hold your breath. He’s not a conservative. He has no conservative principles. He like free enterprise, so he’ll probably do okay with the economy, but don’t expect anything else good from him, unless the campaign calculus dictates it. Opposing LOST will buy him no votes.
Actually what Romney must do is to maintain the message discipline that will win the election. If he wants to privately twist some arms in the Senate various issues fine, but for voters in the middle who have never heard of the “Law of the Sea Treaty” and haven’t the interest to learn, that just opens up a diversionary issue that wastes opportunities to hit Obama on issues where he is most vulnerable.
WE need to contact our Senators about this issue.
Obama’s run of bad news isn’t over yet.
It now looks like the unemployment rate for June will come in at 8.3%–higher than in April or May.
I can’t wait to see how Obama tries to spin that one.
It seems that the lessons of Andrew Breitbart are finally being applied. But there is still time for the white-gloved, white-shod “gentlemen” of the Republican party to reassert control and throw it all away for the sake of feeling good about themselves…
They’re posting wherever David Frum is writing.
Poor David Frum. He keeps trying to have his lefty friends and pose as a Republican. It’s too much of a stretch. I don’t even know where his web site is anymore.
That is one of the things that has most impressed me about Romney. He has not been afraid to hit Obama back even harder than Obama hits him. And also he has not listened to all these dem/MSM fake outrage moments, where they demand that Romney censor his own supporters. The day I see Obama effectively censoring the fanatics on his side, is the day we can start censoring ours. One sided civility accomplishes nothing. We should be as civil as the dems are, no better. And I have never heard Obama cut anybody slack on anything. Sure he talks about civility, but it is always about what repubs should be doing. I have never seen him effectively discipline one of his own. Perhaps after we win, we can start extending some peace feelers, like Walker did after he won in WI, but not before.
This is so much more refreshing than McCain’s campaign. Apparently McCain thought that having his campaign managed by someone tied to CBS would gain him positive publicity. He never realized that such a person had to maintain positive ties with their Democrat colleagues at CBS and was probably a Democrat already. This manager insisted on insipid campaigning and is notable only for sabotaging Governor Palin (probably because she threatened to be dynamic and popular.) This campaign seems to think ahead, listen closely to the dems and hit them back every time they open their mouths with silly quarter truths, which is the best that they ever seem to utter.
Perhaps, since it is apparently legal and honorable, they should go around to nursing homes and sign up the immobile to absentee ballots even before the dems do it.
recruiting illegal votes, a key dem tactic should be exposed and attacked and not emulated.
The private sector is doing just fine. That is why 9 of the wealthiest counties in the U.S. are in the greater DC area. Oh wait, er, I mean, um…
Obama’s ad speaks to his bigotry in a way that takes my breath away. Right up there with Holder’s “my people” comment. The whole sorry bunch are beyond Kafkaesque, but their transparent racism is back-firing among a growing contingent of self-respecting Americans of all stripes.
He may yet turn out to be God’s greatest to this country. Just not for the reason he thought.
…God’s greatest gift….
Obama’s racism speaks volumes in all the time he has been in office. He has done nothing but destroyed rural America since we are just not use to the likes of him. He has done nothing but to obstruct all the job creators of America. We are facing tough economic times and job creation should be left to the people who knows best for our economy, the job creators. I am appalled to see this destruction of our capitalist foundation being taken place. He is redistributing the wealth to every welfare recipient in America and all the lazy unemployed. This is a blasphemy.
An Appeal to Ron Paul, on Mitt Romney – By Tom Woods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=290FHLRaZyQ
I also think that Romney should also make the case more how liberals like Obama have the potential of spending us into oblivion. Keep mentioning that Obama has spent over $5 trillion dollars and what do we have to show for it? Also mention that one major path to solvency is by reducing the size of government big time. STOP SPENDING MONEY, should be his battle cry. If you both reduce the size of government along with reducing taxes, you will have another Reagan boom on your hands, and boy could we use it.
I agree. He should also highlight that Obama spending is currently 24% of GDP, the highest level since WW2, 20% higher than Bush, and 33% higher than Clinton.
Thanks, Bryan, for linking to these two ads. I live in South Africa (serving the nation as a diplomat), and don’t get to follow the campaign the way I would if I were home. There are many criteria I look for in a president, but these ads reminded me of a core principle in which I won’t concede: I expect my president to get a lump in his throat when he sees that flag. I sincerely do not believe that Barack Obama has ever felt that lump in his throat. A person doesn’t have to wear his patriotism on his sleeve, but I look for that core conviction which wells up when the symbol of real hope and change goes by. It’s not partisan, but it is deeply American.
Thanks for your service overseas. Agreed about the lump in the throat. Has everyone seen the latest picture of the playing of the national anthem where everybody but President NewSocialist has their hands over their hearts?
Dear Ron Paul, We Will Not Quit!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXhY1j3ZAMs&feature=player_embedded#!
You might as well. Ron did.
Spammer, go away.
The most important thing is the message consistency. Romney has finally figured out that changing his position on every issue as he has done in the past is not a winning strategy. Let’s hope the left doesn’t remind everyone that Romney has been on every side of every issue.
And if the Left forgets to remind everyone, I’m sure you’ll be happy to pick up their slack.
Sheesh.
Et tu?
Let’s hope the left doesn’t remind everyone that Romney has been on every side of every issue.
Let’s hope the right reminds everybody that Obama has been on every side of every issue.
One problem for them is reminding people of Romneys flip flops also reminds everybody of Obamas even worse flip flops, like calling Bush’s 4 trillion debt treasonous, and then running up 5 trillion of his own in half the time. And what about obamas flip flops on Guantanamo, drone attacks, transparency, and gay marriage (oh wait, that one wasn’t a flip flop, it was evolution).
Just say he _evolved_.
Yeah, he evolved into needing more campaign cash.
I think Gov Romney needs to show in his adds, just how mucb 1 trillion really is. It has been bandied around so much that people forget.
Great idea. Perhaps Romney could show us a tiny grain of sand he is holding in his hand with a closeup, and then show us a huge pile of a trillion grains of sand behind him, and then say Obama is adding over that amount of dollar bills to the debt every year. Then simply and sincerely say in a closeup “the overspending has to stop now, either we stop spending. or we turn into Greece”. I think an add like that would be the killer add of the year, and since the dems love spending, will never stop, and everybody knows that, they would have no defense to it.
Honestly, just writing the figure out with all those zeros behind it would help- as in $1,000,000,000,000. I watched a video that documented what people were willing to bid for a small item of value ( a water bottle)- and that number went up with the number that the bidder had randomly assigned to the bid card in front of them. In other words- if ones’s bid card number was 100 then one tended to bid higher than someone whose bid card was # 5. That’s how open to suggestion people are.
Actually, a better video to illustrate the stark differences between Romney and The One would be the above Romney flag video vs this one (Michelle Obama’s famous ‘All this fuss for a damn flag’ video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJgWMI0hch8
I’m Romney’s least excited fan, but admit his campaign is going better than expected…but the main reason is that the obama campaign has a dreadful product. And the next biggest reason is that the new media (thank you Breitbart) is finally getting a bit of traction while shining a light on the life of the biggest con man in history.
Romney isn’t as jaw-droppingly stupid as McCain, but if his fat cat lifetime-sinecure political operatives think obama is going to stumble bum for 6 months, good luck with that. If the toughest Romney can get is to say the marxist is a nice guy who makes a lot of mistakes, Romney will lose.
I still haven’t heard the Romney machine get anywhere near an affirmative truth about the totality of the damage the marxist is doing to the country. Since independents now are waking up to it at last and are beginning to get wider and wider eyes as more and more of the truth seeps out, if Romney continues with his head in the sand routine about the danger, people might well conclude that Romney is actually MORE clueless than obama, and they decide to grab as much as they can get while the getting is good.
Just for one small example, when are they going to say that government is 100% OVERHEAD. Of course the government can’t spend it’s way out of a recession. It doesn’t make a single thing. AT BEST, it keeps the peace and sets rules that people believe in. Every dime of the other crap is a total drain on the country. It’s so obvious that a child can understand it…but they never say it and never will; because, of course, Romney’s people are a big part of the useless overhead themselves. From their perspective, they might as well shoot themselves in the head.
I disagree here. Romney should let surrogates, conservative media, and bloggers take on Obamas marxist socialist tendencies. But Romney himself needs to remain presidential. Most people wont buy that Obama is a Marxist, but they dont have to, they just have to buy that Obama is an incompetant idealog, which is also true. His main need at this stage is to win over moderates in the swing states. That does not mean he censors his own supporters, moderates his message to blandness, or retreats before any Obama attack, like idiot McCain did. But he should remain presidential himself, and does not want to come off as a raving Paulist type. Put out important facts, hit Obama hard on the bread and butter issues, forcefully answer any Obama attacks, jump on Obama mistakes, and put out real sensible plans to fix things.
shortcuts.
I’m talking about the campaign. obviously Romney can’t run around screaming marxist unpromted.
But he could certainly at least raise an eyebrow when given a slowball about the country’s march to socialism of one form or another or when asked whether obama has had some unusual influences relative to other mainstream politicians.
This mantra of he’s a nice guy and just makes a bunch of well-meaning mistakes is more dangerous than telling the truth about the guy. People are going to think he is just as clueless as obama.
Which is true as far as I can tell. Romney is just a big government loving guy who favors capitalism as his economic philosoply. I don’t think he even thinks obama is dangerous, just naive about business.
You are unlikely to see what you want. The target of the Romney campaign are the “persuadable voters” who voted for Obama in 2008. The Republicans have throughly tested virtually every message about Obama with over 100 focus groups made up from these voters. They discovered that messages that target the negative reasons for Obama’s policies, facts about his beliefs and upbringing and associations, all push these voters back toward Obama’s camp.
The well meaning but incompetent failure whose mistakes are harming the country now and for the future, and who will only make things worse mantra provides a guilt free reason for them to change their vote and vote for Romney. These people never have to admit THEY were duped or that THEY made a mistake, it’s just that we can’t afford to support these failing policies any longer.
You are mostly right but things are not that simple. Some of government expense goes to productive activity, though when it does so it is slower and less efficient, because politics and the necessity for protection against corruption slows down and misdirects such efforts.
For example, the government invested in Chrysler and General Motors, Solyndra and other similar idiocies, seems intent on taking over medical insurance, took over student loans, etc.
The problem is not that everything it does is overhead and causes more overhead in the overregulated private world, it is that what the government does that could be productive is done at a snails pace and is much less productive than what private enterprise left alone would do.
But you are right that the dems trillion dollar spending is what is keeping the economy down.
Agreed. We might be amidst a game-changing, historic campaign.
Mitt has very sharp people behind him. Eric Fehrnstrom has been Mitt’s guy for a while, and he’s very aggressive. He used to give the Globe conniption fits, and the Phoenix (Boston’s local lefty alt-weekly funded largely of course by escort ads) can’t say Fehrnstrom’s name without invoking quite another f-word.
Buckle down, and let’s keep kicking butt ladies and gentlemen!
An inconvenient truth:
The polling trend-line is not looking positive for the incumbent.
President Obama showed up late for his address in Cleveland today, so the networks switched to Romney’s address in Cincinnati. Taranto noticed. Bonus points to the Romney team if they scheduled Romney’s talk in anticipation that Obama would leave the networks with dead air to fill. Extra bonus points if Romney had a contingency script with a summary of his key points to switch to when the networks cut over.
The Failure of Subsidized Production in the Massachusetts Theocracy Mises Daily: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 by Murray N. Rothbard
http://mises.org/daily/5994/The-Failure-of-Subsidized-Production-in-the-Massachusetts-Theocracy
And for clues about what Team Obama is doing wrong, check out this breathless BusinessWeek article about campaign manager Jim Messina. Seems he’s been all over the place soaking up tips from the likes of Marc Benioff, Anna Wintour, and Eric Schmidt — people who have no idea how to run a political campaign, but are happy to chime in with advice about harnessing the cloud and selling Obama-branded fashion.
Look for a campaign that does a million unimportant things badly, can’t focus, and trips over itself at every turn.
Mitt understands that the MSM will do everything possible to make him look bad and support Obama. Now, the more the spotlight on Obama the better. Remember Barry Heusein Kardsahian , is the celebrity President – who was all promise and no result.
It’s the economy, stupid ! will be Bill Clinton’s ultimate, if unintentional revenge on Obama.
Good point. Romney should never forget that the MSM is his enemy, and at best a few MSM reporters can be objective, but never friendly, while most of them will be in the tank for Obama. Mind you Romney shouldn’t necessarily SAY the MSM is against him, that comes across as whiny and Newtlike, but he should never forget it in any interaction with them. He should also be prepared to either politely challenge or deflect any MSM question that is real BS, while keeping the appearance of civility, and thereby bait the reporter into flying off the handle. That was another McCain mistake. When the press always fell in love with him in repub primaries, he thought they would give him the same favorable treatment in the general. Santorum even fell for it, when he let the MSM paint him as a socon fanatic.
Sadly, while Obama might lose a fair election…
He will win this one through vote fraud.
He will produce 3 million bogus votes in swing states. Period.
The one person who could have exposed this was Andrew Breitbart.
Sorry, Republicans, Obama will create 3 million fake votes and win.
No, he won’t. Not three million. No way.
Obama will try, but fortunately the 3 swing states Romney needs most, Fl, Oh, and VA, each have repubs in control of state gov at the moment, and I suspect they will be watching very closely for vote fraud. Of course Holder will constantly sue them to try and stop them from watching, but if they are dedicated enough they can overcome that.
They couldn’t do it in Wisconsin. They tried but failed. That is a state where Democrats own the Judiciary.
…and the “good guys” still won. I expect that if WI goes R, it will be by the 51% margin we saw with Kleefish-Mitchell (prolly the upper NW side of Milwaukee where some blacks like Walker but couldnt pull for Kleefisch out of racial solidarity).
For many American families, that flag is all they have left of a loved one who left this Earth too soon in their giving of the “last full measure of devotion” to their families, their communities, and their countrymen. For me, to display that flag is to pay a modest tribute to those individuals who sacrificed everything and to their families who will always mourn their loss.
And I guess that is why I can not find peace with someone desecrating it. To do so is to desecrate the graves of the flower of our nation. The flag should be treated with the tenderness and respect we would give to the grave of our own child.
I did not support Romney in the primaries, ended up voting for Santorum along with most everybody else in Alabama. But I am very pleased to see how professional and effective Romney’s campaign is. His executive experience is showing: in particular the ability to size up an opponent then move in methodically and ruthlessly for the kill. And he does it all with a smile.
The Romney campaign seems to have gotten USAF Colonel John Boyd’s OODA loop down to near perfection. Here’s how Wikipedia defines it:
“The OODA loop has become an important concept in both business and military strategy. According to Boyd, decision-making occurs in a recurring cycle of observe-orient-decide-act. An entity (whether an individual or an organization) that can process this cycle quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby “get inside” the opponent’s decision cycle and gain the advantage.”
I’d love to see the Romney campaign recreate Obama’s Greek column backdrop with Romney pensively asking, “How’s it all worked out?” It’d turn Obama’s 2008 hype against him.
–Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace
This site is dictionary definitive passive-aggressive: a pop up with a tiny close box then I have to click multiple times just to read an article so you fake-wise rack up more web site hits to sell adverts. Oh glee.
Romneey’s campaign has hired a 21st century Public Relations firm. Keep up the good work.
Anybody else notice the 48 star flag at 1:35. I wonder the story about that flag.
I saw one recently because we were in a production of South Pacific, and wanted a flag on the piano during the ‘play.’ One of our guys looked it up on his phone and bought a 48 star flag right during rehearsal.
Bryan, I miss you over at Hot Air. Ed’s turned it into a forum about Ed. He even links to his own writings at other sites. I still read thier stuff regularly but it’s just not the same without you there. Glad to see you doing such a great job out in the big world. Keep it up.
Romney’s ad is all right. It’s not great but it will do. Obama’s ad? It made me think I would crawl naked over a mile of broken glass to vote against that racist criminal. The people who voted for President Downgrade in 2008 should be permanently stripped of that right for having made such a horribly egregious mistake. If America doesn’t do anything else wrong in the meantime and our system doesn’t implode, our grandchildren will still be paying off Obama’s largesse to his political cronies.
He is, truly, the worst President America has ever had, and that by orders of magnitude. I didn’t think anything could make the peanut farmer look good, but he did it.
MAC WROTE: “He is, truly, the worst President America has ever had, and that by orders of magnitude. I didn’t think anything could make the peanut farmer look good, but he did it….” 100% Correct. Carter has Obama to thank for elevating him at least one notch.
The Obama ad is about Obama. The Romney ad is about the nation. Which man would be a better president?
I know who I’m voting for in November, and it’s not Obama.
Obama and Axelrod have left a wide opening for Romney and his minions to fill. Note the number of lawless acts he has understaken: ignore federal judge court orders, ignore congressional oversight, and the list is massive.
One rule of a campaign is to throw so much on the wall that the opposition does not know where to being scraping the wall.
And while Obama is back on his heels, throw more actions that he has understaken unilaterally. There is a 16 wheeler load.
America is or has been a nation of laws. With Obama we are becoming a lawless nation: Holder and the gun runners. The SS playing hide and seek with prostitutes. And list just grows and grows.
Now the illegals get a free pass.