Well supporters of the rally 'round the flag" theory have been pretty scarce around here the past few days. The semi-official FR position has been that the Mid-East crisis is downer for Obama.
With the MSM doing a full court press on the issue I'm afraid you are right. Will the support hold up through 3 debates and a ton of Romney ads? Maybe. Maybe not.
As hard as it is to believe, the happenings this week may well be the Jihadists knowing contribution to the Obama re-election campaign. I find it very hard to believe they want to see Romney in the White House. So I believe they are thinking that their actions will help keep Obama in that spot.
I think Romney has to give it a little time, get his facts right about what looks like the obvious White House negligence on Embassy security and then hit Obama with some big time ads in the battleground states. That should help level the playing field.
I think the history is clear about how these things play out in the short term. People almost always rally around the flag and their leaders.
With the MSM doing a full court press on the issue I'm afraid you are right. Will the support hold up through 3 debates and a ton of Romney ads? Maybe. Maybe not.
I think Romney has a great way to attack Obama here, but I find the R/R campaign to be a miserable bunch of mush so far - neither memorable or inspiring. The "in" is simply "weren't they supposed to love us if Obama was elected, what happened?" Remember all that silliness the O campaign and media fed us in 2008? The Muslim world supposedly hated Bush and would love us if we only elected Obama. Well? What happened. It's a way to attack Hussein and tweak the media.
I think Romney has to give it a little time, get his facts right about what looks like the obvious White House negligence on Embassy security and then hit Obama with some big time ads in the battleground states. That should help level the playing field.
On this particular issue I think Romney has been okay so far. Look, the one thing Obama is really, really good at is campaigning. Sure, they get a ton of help from the mainstream media - but there is no doubt Obama is a top notch campaigner. Obummer is a great orator, comes off as the happy warrior (concealing his radicalism with a friendly smile), and is very likable. People want to like him. That's a huge advantage. At this point, I am just not sure if there are any more opportunities to change the dynamics of this race. I guess the debates are the last real chance.
“Well supporters of the rally ‘round the flag theory have been pretty scarce around here the past few days.........”
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If by “rally around the flag” you mean support the administration simply because there are troubles abroad then I think it a good thing indeed that such support is lacking around Free Republic IN THIS INSTANCE.
For the good of the Republic we need to encourage this attitude both here at FR and in the nation at large. The Obama administration has been pursuing a disastrous anti-American foreign policy regarding anything Islamic. It should receive actually ZERO support from patriotic Americans.
And please don’t misconstrue the above as an attack on you—it isn’t. I understand your point that the current troubles in the Middle East may temporarily play to Obama’s advantage and not to underestimate the gullibility of segments of the American electorate. I agree with you that we AND THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN need to work to counteract that possibility (and the work of the Obama complicit main stream media).