Obama's new challenge: Disappointment

Politico ^

[Sub-Driver]

Obama's new challenge: Disappointment By: Jonathan Allen September 1, 2012 07:07 AM EDT

The watchword of the Republican National Convention in Tampa was disappointment — as in President Barack Obama has been one.

You can hammer Obama on health care. Mock his golf outings. Demand to see his birth certificate and Harvard transcript, and call him a European socialist bent on turning the American Dream into a Belgian nightmare. He’ll throw his head back and laugh at you like a Bond villain.

But tell voters he’s not the man America fell in love with in 2008 — and pine, however disingenuously, about his unfulfilled potential — and a shiver runs through his Chicago campaign headquarters.

Obama’s team was spinning the convention as a complete miss, arguing that Republicans didn’t lay a glove on their man. Yet what emerged from Tampa was a subtle, clever shift in GOP messaging, a much more dangerous strategy for Obama than the kitchen-sink attacks that preceded the gathering. Republicans posed — rhetorically — as Obama 2008 voters, lamenting his unfulfilled expectations as if they had been with him all along instead of trying to block him at every turn.

Both sides recognize the power of the disappointment theme: that the hope Obama offered for mending the economy, transforming the political process and even saving the earth has faded.

“President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet,” Mitt Romney said in accepting the Republican presidential nomination Thursday. “My promise is to help you and your family.”

[Sub-Driver]

Oh boo hoo.........

[jdsteel]

A good strategy.

[Candor7]

But tell voters he’s not the man America fell in love with in 2008 — and pine, however disingenuously, about his unfulfilled potential — and a shiver runs through his Chicago campaign headquarters. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Such are the wages of utopian narcistic liberal fascism in a democratic Republic.

The day will come when King Obama the Obscure will have written his last executive order in substitution for negotiated issues with Congress.

[MEG33]

Good strategy to bring in those starry eyed Obama voters who really are disappointed .

[bjc]

Yes, but outside of the hyper-political circles, the theme of disappointment and failure is easier to take and to sell to the general electorate. It minimizes the misplaced fear of somehow showing prejudice by simply voting against an ostensible minority.
When I watched the Eastwood speech on Thursday night, I was frankly embarrassed for Mr Eastwood and the Republicans. However, the more I thought about it and the more others employed the empty chair metaphor, the more powerful it seemed to me the speech actually was. Now I think it worked brilliantly. Somebody very smart or very lucky is at work.

[nhwingut]

Why Jonathan Allen is coming back to POLITICO

I am a reporter.

It took only 40 days as a political aide — I’ll think of it as my Noah’s Ark phase — to know this in my heart.

I am the son of a reporter, and I have been one myself since high school. But I had an itch I couldn’t scratch as a journalist: I wanted to see if I could play the political game. I wanted to be a political insider — or thought I did.

In January, I went to work for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat whom I had admired as a reporter and whom I continue to hold in high regard.

I thought then I was making a permanent career change. In those first days after taking the job, I tried hard to show — after years of staying scrupulously on the sidelines and keeping my views to myself — that I could be a loyal Democrat. I made some effusive comments in an interview. My wife and I made a small contribution to the reelection campaign of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.). I was excited to be allowed to root for someone — anyone — other than the Washington Nationals.

But it didn’t take long for me to figure out that partisan politics wasn’t the right fit for me. I’m not a rah-rah guy. I like to point out inconsistencies. Like the annoying kid in fourth grade, I want to share all the information I have all the time. I hate going to meetings — particularly if I have to stand inside the doors.

From the outset, I felt like I was a reporter just masquerading as a political operative.

Now, as I leave my job at Wasserman Schultz’s political action committee to make the transition back to journalism at POLITICO, there will be some who wonder whether I am a political operative just masquerading as a reporter.

It’s a fair question for the Republicans who may now view me with a skeptical eye, for the 300-plus congressional Democrats for whom I did not work and, above all, for POLITICO’s readers.

Most reporters for straight-news organizations do not talk about their ideology or partisan preferences. After writing this, I intend to go back to that myself. But, in the midst of this admittedly unusual career twist, I should lay my cards on the table.

[palmer]

instead of trying to block him at every turn

Politico has gone back to their old strategy; blame Republican obstructionists for Obama's failure. The sympathy voters are still out there, the question is whether Obama can inspire them to vote. That is one reason why Clint Eastwood's version of Obama was so effective. Obama looks sympathetic on the outside but inside he says "go f yourself" to people.

[o2bfree]

The democrat controlled senate is blocking Obama too. Nobody likes him anymore. The democrat senate has blocked obamas budget for three years.

[ExTexasRedhead]

“The Hope and The Change” documentary that will not help Barry and his Regime. Hannity previewed it tonight. Soon to be televised.

http://thehopeandthechange.com/index.html

Barry and his Marxist team are getting exposed from every direction; my guess is that this is just the beginning through November 6, 2012.

[SE Mom]

It doesn’t matter how you plead with me Jonathan- I never believed you were anything BUT a political operative in the first place. That you think there’s a difference is the telling point. The problem with the majority of you in the media- you HONESTLY do not even SEE your liberal bias.

If half of you all moved to various small cities across the U.S. and LIVED there for a few years, you might begin to grasp what this country IS and is NOT. I don’t even mean that in a “we’re all conservatives” way either. I mean that no one who continually views the world through a D.C. pair of glasses is in touch with reality.

I’m willing to bet that after a few years in “realville” you’d begin to see the bias of the other half you left back in Washington.

[Zakeet]

This idiot didn't disappoint me ... cause I expected the very worst ... and he delivered!

[spokeshave]

However, the more I thought about it and the more others employed the empty chair metaphor, the more powerful it seemed to me the speech actually was. Now I think it worked brilliantly. Somebody very smart or very lucky is at work.

..lets see empty chairs on every porch and front garden nation wide.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Poor baby, you can always fall back on the accomplishments you made while a community organizer....

[Hotlanta Mike]

..lets see empty chairs on every porch and front garden nation wide.

---

Empty chairs signifying recognition of the National Disgrace we have in the White House. Let’s not be mental masochists about this, time to let O go.

[randita]

The reason Rush is successful is because he makes his points with humor and he is a very funny guy. Steyn is great for that reason as well.

Eastwood understands that. Yes, he was faltering but he knew what he was doing and he was very funny. I listened on the radio and I laughed out loud several times.

Romney will disappoint some people because his strategy is not to go for the jugular. The PACs will do that.

Romney (and his campaign) need to show those voters that he understands where they’re coming from, that Romney will turn things around, and that there’s an army of people out there who are disappointed and they’re welcome into the fold.

Millions of people are on the fence now. I know one personally who is a die hard Democrat and was extremely juiced about Obama. She is very disappointed and really torn. What’s interesting is that she’s a die hard Dem and feels this way! So you can easily believe that many of the wishy washy emotional independents are already over on the Romney side of the fence.

If Romney can get even 5-10% of the die hards to hop on over, it will be a landslide.

His ads now will target those Indies who are leaning toward him. Once he’s done that, he can go after the folks like my friend, who are on the Obama side of the fence still, but have very long faces. Depending on the state of his internal polls, he can either try hard to convert them, or push the disappointment angle so much that they stay home OR maybe both.

[jughandle]

Trouble is will they still want their “free” stuff they were duped into believing?

[Pigsley]

Yes, it is a good strategy. Simple and easy to implement. Now that the RNC showed how to sprinkle this “disappointment” into the conversation, we on the ground can follow through with spreading the “cheer” in comment forums on algoresinterwebs.

I can almost taste Mr. Obama’s coming implosion. Being a textbook case of narcissism, Obama can rationalize away many things, but the realization that the masses are “on to him” is the one thing he simply will not be able to handle.

True narcissism is rather rare, but the current occupant of the Oval Office fits the description very well. These types positively fall apart at the seams when exposed.

The next two months are going to be interestingg....As his ego fractures and spins out of control, Axlerod, ValJar and Michelle will become increasingly desperate as to how to stop his numbers from falling. I imagine, being from that cess pool of Chi politics, they will go for race/class riots...make that a national emergency—then The Won can come in to “heal” the nation. Pathetic plan....but, really, what else can he do? Invade Iran? Well...if the numbers go low enough...He will.

[katykelly]

Oh , brother ...

[Yardstick]

What’s amazing is that this guy truly believes in his own objectivity as well as POLITICO’s. Talk about an illuminating case study.

[nhwingut]

What’s amazing is that this guy truly believes in his own objectivity as well as POLITICO’s. Talk about an illuminating case study.

Yep. The line about him excusing his anti Republican talking points as his attempt to be a team player is so laughable.

Here is a guy who has worked in politics his entire adult life (and who went to work for the biggest bomb thrower in DC) who now says he doesn't like the partisan game. LOL!