"How to Defeat Romney: Chain Him to the G.O.P."by John Cassidy at the New Yorker

[applegrove]

How to Defeat Romney: Chain Him to the G.O.P.

by John Cassidy at the New Yorker


Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2012/06/campaign-memo-how-to-defeat-mitt-romney.html#ixzz1xuIS2Ek8


"SNIP........................................................


So what should Obama’s message be? With job growth stalled and almost two thirds of the voters telling pollsters they believe the country is still going in the wrong direction, Obama’s campaign managers understand perfectly well that they have to frame the election as a choice between two possibly unpalatable choices rather than a referendum on Obama’s tenure. Inevitably, that means running a negative campaign and raising more doubts about the G.O.P. challenger. But it also means portraying a positive picture of the President as a dogged fighter for ordinary Americans, who is in the trenches every day battling against an extremist Republican Party.

Paul Begala remarked recently that in almost any election there are really only two campaign messages: “time for a change” and “stay the course.” In making the latter argument, Obama has to be be wary of sounding like he doesn’t get it. The official statistics may say the economy is recovering and things are better than they were when Obama came to office, but, as James Carville, Stan Greenberg, and Erica Seifert point out in a new campaign memo, many independent voters simply don’t believe it. Rather than seeking to persuade them that they are wrong, the President needs to show them two things: 1) He understands their concerns and is on their side; and 2) The outlook for the country will be a lot worse if he loses and the Republicans take over.

Going negative on Romney is pretty easy, and the process has already begun. But portraying him as an out-of-touch rich guy, and banging on about all the people he fired at Bain Capital, won’t by itself turn America against him. In this country, being rich and ruthless isn’t necessarily a barrier to electoral success; to the contrary. Mike Bloomberg is an out-of-touch rich guy and a hard-nosed businessman. A largely Democratic metropolis has reëlected him twice because it views him as a competent, straight-shooter.

The key difference between Romney and Bloomberg is that Romney hasn’t used his money to create an independent platform; he’s thrown in his lot with the G.O.P., which many independent voters view with suspicion. According to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, fewer than a third of Americans have a positive view of the Republican Party, and just nine per cent of them have a “very positive” view. That, rather than his own record as a businessman and a governor, is Romney’s achilles heel. In addition to highlighting his record and portraying him as a soulless flip-flopper, the Obama campaign should be relentlessly depicting him as the prisoner of a rabid and obstructionist party that has consistently stymied efforts to get the economy going, and which is committed to an extremist agenda involving attacks on Medicare, Social Security, public schools, and other popular government programs.

.........................................................SNIP"

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2012/06/campaign-memo-how-to-defeat-mitt-romney.html#ixzz1xuIwdq5I

[rocktivity]

1. More specifically, chain him to the Bush regime

Which isn't hard, considering that the Rmoney regime is the Bush regime on steroids.


rocktivity

[applegrove]

2. I think Boehner, Cantor and McConell are really not trusted my the vast majority of americans.

I think Obama should tie Romney to them instead. The do nothing congress. I mean think about it - while this campaign has begun you have not seen or heard of either of those three. They are in hiding.

[targetpractice]

3. That will be delicious...

Yesterday, Chris Matthews asked Michael Steele to explain what differences exist between Romney's policies and George Bush's... The question really got under Steele's skin. I look forward to reporters asking Romney this question.

[CTyankee]

4. It seems that this is exactly what Obama did in his last speech.

He used the "why do we want to go back to the same policies that failed last time?" It was a good theme.