Posted on 08/16/2012 6:38:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
I have already gone on record saying that the Romney campaign has not been mean and tough enough. The Obama crowd, which knows it is important to define an opposing candidate in a negative light before the candidate really gets to introduce himself to the public, has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at both Romney and Paul Ryan to accomplish that goal. There is now some evidence that the Romney camp and its supporters are getting more aggressive in their efforts to define President Obama.
But while they have not reached the butt-kicking Lee Atwater take-no-prisoners effort of years past, the GOP and the Romney campaign are starting to show that they can run a campaign rough enough to keep up with Obama's shady Chicago crowd.
The pick of Ryan, while perhaps not the best strategic choice, nevertheless brings a brawler into the GOP effort. Ryan has never hesitated to take the president to task, whether on talk shows or face to face in open forums.
What he does not bring is a loyal state that can be counted on in November. And he comes with the baggage of his own -- the GOP House budget that he helped craft and that, under a cursory and unfair interpretation, appears to threaten Medicare recipients and puts Florida at risk.
Enter the winning strategy.
It starts with an aggressive ad campaign in Florida that points out that Obamacare actually called for huge reductions in Medicare to help fund the president's monstrous health care initiative. That must be followed up by planting Marco Rubio, my choice for the VP nomination, firmly in Florida for the next few months, explaining that the Ryan and certainly the Romney plan would not affect anyone currently eligible and would keep the program solvent.
The second part of the strategy would be a no-holds-barred, vicious attack on the hypocrisy of President Obama and his administration. In my years of running campaigns and polling them, I have found that no ad is more effective than the so-called hypocrisy ad.
Rather than to simply use Obama's promises of an improved economy made several years ago and stating that he failed, the hypocrisy ad presents the message differently.
It basically starts with Obama's claims of economic success and his promises of the past followed by a narrator who says during his presidency he has constantly claimed that he is making progress with the economy while millions have been forced to the unemployment lines and onto food stamps, and many more have struggled. President Obama has spent vacations in Hawaii, more days playing golf than meeting with his economic policy team and traveling from city to city, raising millions of dollars with movie stars and celebrities. Barak Obama speaks one way, but his actions are completely different.
Now, that's just a start. Every time the Obama campaign comes up with a nitpicky new issue that they focus on, the GOP and Romney should swiftly take to the air with ads pointing out how bad the economy is. That the programs he passed resulted in no improvement. That he has run a secretive administration in which agencies target individual citizens. Drones are ordered to fly over our homes, and mandates move us closer to old failed systems of government -- "hint," can you say "Soviet Union"?
The last part of the strategy would be to prepare for the debates early on. While most people believe debates make no difference, they in fact were the determining factor in Kennedy vs. Nixon, Ford vs. Carter, Reagan vs. Carter and, to a lesser extent, George H.W. Bush vs. Dukakis. A knockout blow by Romney in those debates might just turn what had been a meandering campaign into a winner.
Not a huge Romney fan, but I do not see his campaign as meandering. As a matter of fact, I think “so far so good”.
“A knockout blow by Romney in those debates might just turn what had been a meandering campaign into a winner.”
He’ll need to have several knockout blows-—for obama AND the 4 liberal moderators who will be trying their best to trip him up while swooning over their idol, obama.
I agree wholeheartedly. So tired of seeing the wizards of smart on our side bashing this campaign. I think they have done pretty well. Every campaign makes mistakes, and they have in a few cases, but overall, I am very pleased, both on trying to driving the news cycle despite a hostile media, and in keeping Obama’s numbers low all summer. He’s sucking at or below 45% nationally, and in most of the key states.
The ad should include the video of Obama telling a woman that mayber her mother would be better off getting a couple of aspirin instead of a pacemaker.
Why not use the tried and true “Tax and Spend Liberal” label?
You mean actually espousing conservative ideals?.............nah, never works.........
The ad should start out by explaining that Medicare is broken and that Paul Ryan’s fix is to pattern it after the health plans enjoyed by most federal workers. It should then shift to “What is Obama’s plan to fix Medicare?”, and then go to the video where he tells the woman to give her mother the pill instead of the pacemaker.
They need to use this in and ad and ask...
“Why does the president want to deny elderly citizens life-saving medical choices?”
What is this guy thinking? Should Romney have chosen a conservative from a loyal state that can be counted on in November, perhaps a republican from Idaho, Utah, or Wyoming? As disappointing as I find Romney, the idea that he needs someone from a loyal state on the ticket is almost too silly for words. What Romney needed, to the extent that the Vice President's geography is a factor at all in voting for President, was someone from a potentially competitive state. It's at least possible that Ryan does this better than anyone else I can imagine except possibly a Florida republican.
I'm sure that the media will drum on the possibility that Ryan appears to threaten Medicare recipients for the next three months. Considering that ObamaCare doesn't just threaten Medicare recipients but actually slashes Medicare funding, if Romney can't turn that attack back on Obama, the GOP deserves to lose. This is one of those rare opening paragraphs that at least pretends to be on our side but still leaves the reader less informed than if it had been omitted.
Anybody know if they have an ads about Obamacare running on Catholic radio stations? That’s a no brainer I would think.
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