The 2013 Anxiety Meter

All through 2012 I kept telling myself that, if I could just wait it out until the elections, a majority of Americans would surely set things right by electing Mitt Romney, but we have since learned that he was a reluctant candidate who, if we are to believe his son—and I think we can—really didn’t want to get in the race, but thought the others in the primaries had little chance of winning.

I won’t blame Romney for the loss. Running against an incumbent President has rarely yielded victory. He had all the right qualifications, but he always struck me as just “too nice” and, as we know, Republicans were reluctant to tear into Obama’s appalling record on the economy and other issues. Like Romney, they are “too nice” despite being up against political thugs.

I think 2013 is going to be a very unlucky year for the United States and it has a lot to do with the fact that Barack Hussein Obama is now free to finish off his destruction of America because he does not have to run again for office.

Anyone who has seen Obama in action over the past four years has reason to fear 2013 and beyond. Any man who wants to be President has to have a lot of confidence in himself and a very thick skin. Obama, however, turns every occasion, including the recent funeral service of Sen. Denial Inouye, into an opportunity to talk about himself. A National Standard article noted that during the recent funeral for Hawaii senator Daniel Inouye, Obama “in the short 1,600 word speech…used the word “my” 21 times, “me” 12 times, and “I” 30 times.”

Via: Canada Free Press

Continue Reading...

‘Democratic’ and ‘Anti-Business’ Are Becoming Synonymous

Forbes’s recently released list of “The Best States for Businesses and Careers” provides further evidence of the Democratic party’s striking erosion as a party of economic growth and prosperity.  Based on their votes in the most recent presidential election, all but three of Forbes’s top-10 states are Republican-leaning, while all but two of its bottom-10 states are Democratic-leaning. 

The top-10 states on Forbes’s list — Utah, Virginia, North Dakota, North Carolina, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Iowa — voted for Mitt Romney by an average margin of 14 percentage points.  Meanwhile, the bottom-10 states on Forbes’s list — California, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Vermont, West Virginia, Mississippi, Michigan, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Maine — voted for President Obama by an average margin of 13 points.  That’s a 27-point swing from Romney to Obama as we move from the top-10 states to the bottom-10 states.

Forbes rated the states based on six factors: “business costs,” “labor supply,” “regulatory environment,” “economic climate,” “growth prospects,” and “quality of life.”  Forbes rated 62 percent of Obama’s states as being below average and 63 percent of Romney’s states as being above average.  Obama won only 33 percent of Forbes’s top-15 states but 73 percent of its bottom-15 states.

Via: Weekly Standard

Continue Reading...

Middle Cheese: GOP Counties Turned Out for Early Voting

Middle Cheese checks in:

Just a brief report from the Big Cheeses at Team Romney about Ohio early/absentee voting: Obama is under-performing in Kerry-Obama counties, and Republicans are outperforming in McCain 08 counties. As of yesterday, in swing Hamilton County, there are 1,000 fewer Democrat and 800 more GOP early/absentee votes than at this point in 08. Ohio Republicans will turn out. But the key to a Romney victory in OH will be independent voters, who favor Romney by double-digits over Obama in 21 of the last 24 public opinion polls.

Via: National Review Online

Continue Reading... 

MICHIGAN BILLBOARD: ROMNEY HAS GENERATED MILLIONS, OBAMA HAS WASTED TRILLIONS

A billboard in southwestern Michigan compares Mitt Romney's successful record in the private sector with Barack Obama's socialist failures.

Ottawa County Patriots have put up the billboard that asks, "Do you want a businessman who has generated millions or a president who has wasted trillions?" 

The billboard lists the companies in which Romney successfully invested private capital versus the companies in which Obama invested taxpayer dollars. 

Romney's successful private sector investments in companies such as Dominos Pizza, Staples, AMC Entertainment, Burger King, Clear Channel Communications, and The Sports Authority are put next to failed companies -- like Solyndra and Beacon Power -- that received taxpayer dollars from Obama. 

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading...

Romney Internal Polling Looks Good

 Mitt Romney is ahead by a single percentage point in Ohio, according to internal polling data provided to MailOnline by a Republican party source.

Internal campaign polling completed last night by campaign pollster Neil Newhouse has Romney three points up in New Hampshire, two points up in Iowa and dead level in Wisconsin and - most startlingly - Pennsylvania.

Internal poll show Romney trailing in Nevada, reflected in a consensus among senior advisers that Obama will probably win the state. Early voting in Nevada has shown very heavy turnout in the Democratic stronghold of Clark County and union organisation in the state is strong.

Romney is to campaign in Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on election day, reflecting the tightness of the race in Ohio and the tantalising prospect of success in Pennsylvania, which has not gone Republican in a presidential campaign for 24 years.

Nearly all public polling put Obama ahead in Ohio by whisker at least. The RealClearPolitics average of polls there gives the president a 2.8 per cent advantage. But the Romney campaign insists that pollsters have their models wrong and are overestimating Democratic turnout and underestimating Republican enthusiasm.

If the Romney campaign's internal numbers are correct - and nearly all independent pollsters have come up with a picture much more favourable for Obama - then the former Massachusetts governor will almost certainly be elected 45th U.S. President.

The most dramatic shift in the Romney campaign's internal polling has been in Wisconsin, which has moved from being eight points down to pulling level. President Barack Obama is campaigning in the state on the eve of election day.

Despite the Obama campaign's insistence that Romney's late decision to contest Pennsylvania is an act of 'desperation', former President Bill Clinton - Obama's most valuable ally on the stump - is holding four eve-of-election events there.

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading...

America Won’t Exist With Four More Years of Obama - UN Rule Within Two Years

A November 02, 2012, FoxNews.com online article authored by Christian Whiton, was titled “Would an Obama second term save America’s struggling middle class?” This is almost equal to asking if Obama’s first term helped America’s middle class.  No amount of terms of Obama in office would help America’s middle class.

Secondly, his affiliation and subservience to the Islamic religion, and the Muslims thereof, preclude any possibility that the Christian pretender Barack Obama can serve any loyalty to the American middle, upper or lower classes who are overwhelmingly non-Islamist in their primary theological beliefs.  Obama bows only to the Islamic rulers of the non-free world; his obeisance to Christians and others of the free world is barren.

Over the past four years Obama has paid lip-service only, to America’s middle class.  His prime attention has been concentrated on the upper levels of income earners and concocting efforts to make them pay even more than the inordinately high levels they already do pay in taxes.

Via: Canada Free Press

Continue Reading...

OBAMA'S CLOSING ARGUMENT: ONLY I CAN SAVE YOU FROM AMERICA'S EVIL PAST--AND FUTURE

With just one day left before the polls open, Democrats have settled on a closing message to the 2012 campaign that portrays the Obama presidency as a brief moment of enlightenment in America’s bleak past and future. 

America used to be a place of economic, racial, and sexual oppression--and it would be again, Democrats argue, if the country turned to Romney instead of rewarding Obama with a second term in office.

That is what Obama means when he invokes the repeated refrain--“We’ve come too far to turn back now.” 

It’s an idea expressed more crudely by the likes of Cher, who warned in a new ad: “Don’t let Mitt turn back time on women.” 

It’s also expressed by Democrat strategist Robert Creamer--a convicted felon who is closely linked to Obama’s senior advisers and frequently broadcasts the party’s talking points at the Huffington Post.

Creamer designed the political strategy for selling Obamacare to the American public, advising Democrats: “To win we must not just generate understanding, but emotion—fear, revulsion, anger, disgust.” After Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley in January 2010, he concluded that Democrats had not been negative enough. Those insights have been reflected in the Obama re-election campaign, right down to the final rallies.

In his last column before the election, Creamer tells the story of an elderly woman who was born in 1917 “in a country where there was an unimaginable gulf between a few fabulously wealthy oligarchs, and the masses of ordinary people”; where women could not vote; where blacks suffered discrimination and gays suffered prosecution; and so on. 

That country, Creamer reveals--surprise, surprise--is the United States of America.

He does not mention any of the things that made the United States great, even then, in a year when Americans crossed the ocean to liberate European nations from tyranny and war; at a time when millions of immigrants were passing through Ellis Island on their way to free and prosperous lives; at a time when the bloody revolution that would inspire the left throughout the world was plunging Russia into communist dictatorship.

Creamer goes on to provide a laundry list of horrors that await America is Romney is elected, including the repeal of Obamacare, increases in military spending, and the appointment of “the same Neo-Con foreign policy advisers who got us into the Iraq War.” 

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading...

OBAMA: 'I'LL WORK WITH ANYBODY'

Today, speaking in Concord, New Hampshire, trying to look bipartisan, Barack Obama made this incredible statement:

“As long as I’m president, I’ll work with anybody.”

He can’t be serious.

For a start, let’s take a look at immigration reform. In June of this year, Sen. John McCain, who has always championed bipartisanship, said bitterly:

“This idea that this president or his people reached out to me is patently false. To somehow allege that I didn’t somehow respond to their overtures, that’s patently false. That’s their narrative, and I understand their narrative, but it’s not substantiated by the facts.”

McCain stated that Obama had invited him to the White House in 2009 to discuss immigration reform:

I said, “I’d love to join you,’ and never heard from him,” McCain said…

Obama’s Department of Homeland Security announced in June that it would circumvent Congress and implement the DREAM Act, adding roughly 1.4 million workers to the U.S. labor market. Obama defended himself by insisting that his proposal was not amnesty or immunity, but a new policy that would "mend" the nation's immigration system, make it "more fair, more efficient, and more just." 

Of course, in 2011, when Obama told high school students he did not have the authority to unilaterally suspend deportations, he uttered these mendacious words: 

With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that's just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed …. Congress passes the law. The executive branch's job is to enforce and implement those laws. And then the judiciary has to interpret the laws.

There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as President.

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading...

Report: 500 Generals, Admirals To Endorse Romney

Nearly 500 former military admirals and generals are poised to endorse Mitt Romney, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The group will post a full page ad in the Washington Times on Monday. The advertisement will have the headline, “We, the undersigned, proudly support Governor Mitt Romney as our nation’s next President and Commander-in-Chief,” followed by the names of the former military commanders.

A spokesman for the group emphasized its independence from the official campaign. The Romney campaign has not sanctioned this ad buy, a spokesman said, and the members of the group are paying the fee themselves.

The spokesman added that 389 of the individuals on the list are on the Romney Military Advisory Council, too. The Romney campaign has already announced these individuals’ endorsement.

“They have 389 on their list,” the spokesman said, while “we have almost 500.”

The list comes as a Military Times survey revealed that active duty, National Guard, and military reserve members support Romney over Obama by a two to one margin.

VIA: WFB

Nearly 500 former military admirals and generals are poised to endorse Mitt Romney, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The group will post a full page ad in the Washington Times on Monday. The advertisement will have the headline, “We, the undersigned, proudly support Governor Mitt Romney as our nation’s next President and Commander-in-Chief,” followed by the names of the former military commanders.

A spokesman for the group emphasized its independence from the official campaign. The Romney campaign has not sanctioned this ad buy, a spokesman said, and the members of the group are paying the fee themselves.

The spokesman added that 389 of the individuals on the list are on the Romney Military Advisory Council, too. The Romney campaign has already announced these individuals’ endorsement.

“They have 389 on their list,” the spokesman said, while “we have almost 500.”

The list comes as a Military Times survey revealed that active duty, National Guard, and military reserve members support Romney over Obama by a two to one margin.

Via: WFB

Continue Reading...

The Tip of the Communist Iceberg in the Oval Office

As Tuesday is Election Day, it is extremely important that we get as many voters as humanly possible to the polls to vote for Romney—or against Obama.

We Americans are far more insular than we like to admit.  We have, all along, felt more that this election is for—and about—America and the people of America.  But that is only half of the story.

You see, without a free America, the western world is F I N I S H E D ! 

Many of us have wondered and some even questioned openly Obama’s allegiance.  We’ve asked:  “WHO IS this guy?  WHERE did he come from?  For WHOM is he REALLY working?  To WHOM—or to WHAT—does Obama owe his loyalty?”

All of the above are legitimate questions the answers to which have been covered up for over four years now.

We have posited—often—that Obama is a socialist/communist.  I believe that.  The evidence is there in his background and in his policies as President of the United States. 

I have been bedeviled by the fact that I could not get a clear picture of the greater plan, the ultimate end game, if you will.  Eventually, it occurred to me that the reason was, actually, rather simple.  You see, Obama is only a piece of the puzzle—only a part of the picture. Integral? Yes, no question about it.

America’s enemies are dead set upon bringing America down, forcing her to give up her leadership role on the world stage.  When you investigate Obama’s early life as a child, and then as a student, a college student, a state senator, a US senator and finally, President of the USA, it becomes clear that he has been groomed for this exact purpose.  And he has been eagerly exercising all the anti-American lessons taught him by his communist mentors throughout his life.

“Leading from Behind” is only the tip of the communist iceberg in the US Oval Office.

Via: Canada Free Press

Continue Reading...

Main Street in Revolt

The homemade sign for Mitt Romney in the yard of a well-manicured but modest home in Leadville, Colo., forlornly signals the fracture of another onetime supporter of Barack Obama.

If Romney wins the presidency on Tuesday, the national media, the Washington establishment and the bulk of academia will have missed something huge that happened in “flyover” America under their watch.

It is a story that few have told.

It reminds one of the famous quip by New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael following Richard Nixon’s landslide 1972 victory: “I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon.”

Two years after suffering a historic shellacking in the 2010 midterm election, Democrats astonishingly have ignored Main Street Americans’ unhappiness.

That 2010 ejection from the U.S. House, and from state legislatures and governors’ offices across the country, didn’t happen inside the Washington Beltway world.

It didn’t reflect the Democrats’ or the media’s conventional wisdom or voter-turnout models. So it just wasn’t part of their reality.

In Democrats’ minds, it was never a question of “How did we lose Main Street?” Instead, it was the fault of the “tea party” or of crazy right-wing Republicans.

Yet in interview after interview — in Colorado, along Nebraska’s plains, in small Iowa towns or Wisconsin shops, outside closed Ohio steel plants and elsewhere — many Democrats have told me they are furious with the president. Not in a frothing-at-the-mouth or racist way, as many elites suggest. They just have legitimate concerns affecting their lives.

These Main Street Democrats in seven battleground states supported Obama in 2008. Now they are disappointed by his broken pledges: Where is the promised bipartisanship? How could health-care reform become such a mess? What direction is the country going in?

Via: Real Clear Politics

Continue Reading...

Eleven Major Newspapers Switch To Romney, Only One To Obama

According to the University of California, Santa Barbara American Presidency Project study of the top 100 newspaper editorial endorsements, Mitt Romney has seen a vast wave of switches from 2008 Obama endorsers. Obama, meanwhile, has seen only one newspaper that endorsed John McCain come around to endorse him. At the same time, many newspapers have also switched from Obama to “no endorsement.”

Here are the stats. As of today, 11 newspapers that endorsed Obama in 2008 have now endorsed Mitt Romney:

• The New York Daily News;
• Long Island Newsday;
• Houston Chronicle;
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram;
• Orlando Sentinel;
• Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel;
• Nashville Tennessean;
• Des Moines Register;
• Illinois Daily Herald;
• Los Angeles Daily News;
• Los Angeles Press-Telegram.

The only newspaper that endorsed McCain in 2008 and has switched to Obama now is the San Antonio Express-News. Meanwhile, another seven papers that endorsed Obama in 2008 have switched to no endorsement.

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading...

Axelrod: 'They're in deep trouble'

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama's reelection campaign, dismissed on Sunday the notion that Mitt Romney is making Pennsylvania competitive as the GOP presidential nominee heads there later in the day. 

"They understand that they're in deep trouble," Axelrod said on "Fox News Sunday." "They've tried to expand the map because they know in states like Ohio… they're behind and they're not catching up at this point."

Axelrod argued that Romney's trips to Florida and Virginia are signs that they haven't locked up states where the Republican should be performing well.

"They understand that the traditional, or the battleground, states that we've been focusing are not working out for them," Axelrod said. "Now they're looking for somewhere, desperately looking for somewhere." 

Via: Politico

Continue Reading...

Republican National Committee alleges voting machine troubles in Nevada, other swing states

Secretary of State Ross Miller called claims of voter machine irregularities in Nevada by the Republican National Committee “irresponsible and unfortunate” on Thursday.

Miller, a Democrat, was responding to a letter sent to his office and election officials in five other states on Thursday in which the RNC alleged voting machines cast ballots for President Barack Obama, a Democrat, when the vote was intended for his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The RNC did not provide documented proof of its allegation aside from media anecdotes.

In Washoe County, a man reported a problem with a voting machine in which he tried to vote for Obama but the machine kept registering a vote for Romney. The machine was recalibrated by election officials.

Miller responded in a letter sent to the RNC on Thursday that said unsubstantiated allegations of voting machine problems based on rumor, media reports and hearsay, “undermine the public’s confidence in the electoral process.”

The RNC letter expressed concerns that the voting machine problems were the result of “miscalibration and hyper-sensitivity of the machines.” Letters were sent to officials in Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri.

The RNC asked officials to recalibrate voting machines on Election Day and instruct poll workers to remind voters to double-check their votes.

Eric Herzik, the chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the RNC needs to “put up or shut up.”

Via: RGJ.com

Continue Reading...

Obama Campaign Asks People To Man Phone Bank During Hurricane Sandy…

You really cannot make this stuff up.

Last night, the Obama campaign was sending email requests into Annapolis, Maryland, for help with phone-banking. The time? 5:30 pm, right when Sandy is supposed to be at its worst there.

Hey, what's your petty little insignificant life compared to helping Obama win a second term? 

Just by way of comparison, the Romney campaign has cancelled all its campaign events for Monday/Tuesday.  Of course, the President has cancelled his, too, so he can "focus" on the hurricane.  Wish he had shown that same focus on 9/12, when he jetted off to Las Vegas for a fundraiser . . 

Via: TownHall

Continue Reading...

ROMNEY CLOSES IN MINNESOTA

The last time Minnesota cast its electoral votes for a Republican running for President was 1972. Even Ronald Reagan failed to win the state in both back-to-back landslide elections. It has elected Republicans to the occasional state-wide office, but for President, it is a deep indigo blue. Except, perhaps, this year. A new poll released this morning by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune finds the race essentially tied. Obama holds a slim 3-point lead but, at 47% support, is below the critical 50% threshold. 

To be fair, Minnesota wasn't really part of Obama's firewall for his reelection hopes. It was more of a redoubt. It was state, like California or Illinois, which would absolutely support Obama's reelection. That we are even discussing the possible vote in MN, just a little over a week before the election, is a flashing sign of the troubles plaguing Obama's campaign. 

Last month, the newspaper's poll showed Obama with an 8-point lead. But that 5-point drop in support isn't the worst news for Obama in the poll. The number of voters identifying themselves as Republican has surged. In last month's poll, Democrats had a 13-point edge in the sample, 41-28. Today's poll, however, only gives them a 5-point edge, 38-33. An 8-point swing in one month is extraordinary. 

In 2008, the overall electorate had a Democrat advantage of 4 points, so Republicans still have some room to grow here. Especially considering Obama's collapse in certain voter sub-groups. In 2008, Obama won independents by 17 points. Today, he leads by 6. He won men by 3 points; today he trails by 13. He won women by 16; today, in spite of a singular focus on what Democrats consider women's issues, his support is slightly lower at 14 points.  

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading...

Romney Jumps to 5-Point Lead in Gallup Poll

All registered voters are asked: "Suppose the presidential election were held today, and it included Barack Obama and Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's candidates and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as the Republican Party's candidates. Who would you vote for [ROTATED: Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the Democrats (or) Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, the Republicans]?" Those who are undecided are further asked if they lean more toward Obama and Biden or Romney and Ryan and their leanings are incorporated into the results.

These results are for likely voters, who are the respondents Gallup deems most likely to vote based on their responses to a series of questions asking about current voting intentions, thought given to the election, and past voting behavior. Each seven-day rolling average is based on telephone interviews with approximately 2,700 likely voters; margin of error is ±2 percentage points.

Via: Gallup

Continue Reading...

Wisconsin company announces layoffs ahead of Biden arrival

OSHKOSH, Wis. - Bad news will greet Vice President Joe Biden when he arrives in Wisconsin Thursday night. Hours earlier, Oshkosh's largest employer announced that it will lay off 450 employees in January.

Oshkosh Corp., a truck manufacturer with Pentagon contracts, blamed the "difficult decisions" on looming cuts to the nation's defense budget.

"As Oshkosh and others in the defense industry have discussed on numerous occasions, domestic military vehicle production volumes will decline significantly in 2013 due to the reduction in U.S. defense budgets and the fact that military spending is returning to peacetime levels," the company said in a statement. "Unfortunately, these economic factors require Oshkosh to rebalance its defense production workforce starting in January 2013."

The company said the layoffs were not tied to the looming budget cuts set to take effect in January. And it will still have about 3,500 employees in its Oshkosh-based defense division after the job cuts.

The news came hours ahead of Biden's campaign appearance in the city on Friday morning. President Obama carried Winnebago County in 2008, but area Republicans said they believe Mitt Romney will be competitive here on Election Day.

Statewide tracking polls show that while Obama's lead has slipped, he maintains a slight advantage over Romney in Wisconsin.

Via: Washington Examiner

Continue Reading...

OBAMA BLUE STATE DISASTER

Michigan Poll: Obama and Romney in dead heat

MYFOXDetroit.com - Foster McCollum White Baydoun (FMW)B, a national public opinion polling and voter analytics consulting firm based in Michigan and representing the combined resources of Foster McCollum White & Associates (Troy Michigan) and Baydoun Consulting (Dearborn Michigan) conducted a telephone-automated polling random survey of Michigan registered and most likely November 2012 General election voters for Fox 2 News Detroit to determine their voting and issue preferences for the presidential election.

An initial qualifying statement was read to respondents asking them to participate only if they were very likely to vote in the November General Election.

Thirty five thousand (35,000) calls were placed, and 1,122 respondents fully participated in the survey. The margin of error for this total polling sample is 2.93% with a confidence level of 95%.

The 2012 United States Presidential election will be held on November 6, 2012. Who are you most likely to vote for in the election?

President Barack Obama       46.92%
GOP Nominee Mitt Romney   46.56%
Another candidate                     2.30%
Undecided                                  4.23%

President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney participated in three presidential debates on October. Did their debate performances affect your vote for President?

It confirmed my candidate choice     50.86%
It made me change my candidate    12.24%
It had no affect on my candidate        30.68%
I didn't watch the debate                        6.22%

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading...

NYT: Obama’s Aura of Defeat

In an argument that was echoed and amplified around the liberal twittersphere yesterday, New York’s Jonathan Chait made the case that the Romney campaign has bluffed the press into covering the last two weeks of the campaign as though Obama’s losing. Like George W. Bush in 2000, who famously (and probably foolishly) campaigned in California to lend himself an air of inevitability in the closing days of the campaign, Team Romney’s current brash confidence is designed to persuade the media to overlook the underlying numbers that still point to an advantage for the incumbent. And it’s working, Chait argues: The “widespread perception that Romney is pulling ahead,” he writes, “is Romney’s campaign suckering the press corps with a confidence game.”

I agree with Chait that the numbers still show Obama with a slightly clearer path than Romney to an (excruciatingly narrow) electoral college victory. But if you’re looking for a reason (besides, of course, the national polling showing an ever-so-slight Romney edge) why the media narrative has tilted toward the Republicans over the last week or so, I think the Romney campaign’s guarantee of victory has mattered much less than the Obama campaign’s recent aura of defeat.

Losing campaigns have a certain feel to them: They go negative hard, try out new messaging very late in the game, hype issues that only their core supporters are focused on, and try to turn non-gaffes and minor slip-ups by their opponents into massive, election-turning scandals. Think of John McCain’s desperate hope that elevating Joe the Plumber would change the shape of the 2008 race, and you have the template for how tin-eared and desperate a losing presidential campaign often sounds — and ever since the first debate cost Obama his air of inevitability, he and his surrogates have sounded more like McCain did with Joe the Plumber than like a typical incumbent president on his way to re-election. A winning presidential campaign would not normally be hyping non-issues like Big Bird and “binders full of women” in its quest for a closing argument, or rolling out a new spin on its second-term agenda with just two weeks left in the race, or pushing so many advertising chips into dishonest attacks on its rival’s position on abortion. A winning presidential campaign would typically be talking about the issues that voters cite as most important — jobs, the economy, the deficit — rather than trying to bring up Planned Parenthood and PBS at every opportunity. A winning presidential campaign would not typically have coined the term “Romnesia,” let alone worked it into their candidate’s speeches.
Via: New York Times

Continue Reading...