Posted on 10/12/2012 9:08:40 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
Republican nominee Mitt Romney and his allies are banking heavily on a high-risk, high-reward media strategy in the final weeks of the campaign, hoping that burying President Obama in ads will give them a crucial edge on Election Day.
Ad purchases in the presidential race doubled or in some cases tripled last week in swing states such as Colorado, Florida, Iowa and Virginia, tracking data show. The surge is being driven by Romney and well-funded allies, who decided against running more ads earlier in the campaign in favor of a big bang at the end.
Restore Our Future, a super PAC dedicated to helping Romney, has booked $14 million worth of ads in nine states for the final week of October — more than it spent on ads during the month of September. The group is also ramping up its spending, airing a mix of ads criticizing Obama and extolling Romney in Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.
Charles R. Spies, the super PAC’s treasurer, said conservative groups “have been very effective in leveling the playing field” with Obama. “That effort will continue at an increasing level going forward,” he said.
The GOP effort has gained momentum with Romney’s advance in the polls since the first presidential debate in Denver, where Obama turned in a widely panned performance. The Oct. 3 event sparked an influx of donations to Romney’s campaign and to conservative groups supporting him, giving them more resources for the final push, strategists said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“It’s not Colorado, but look at the absentee ballot requests on Ohio. They are very telling. The democrat requests are way down. The Republican requests are way up.”
As a matter of fact, that is very telling of two things,
1) The Democrats must be rediculously desperate at this point given that the absentee ballots are lower than ‘08, and more favorable toward GOP than before, and 2) The superstitious idea that Ohio is the tipping point in the election may be a little far-fetched. I would think Florida, especially given the population demographics would lean less into the hardcore conservative and closer to center.
Team Romney is proving to be pitch perfect. For all the hand wringing, they really did have the plan all along.
Boy this is so refreshing compared to 2008.
Arizona isn’t “in play” anymore. Most of the illegal aliens left and went to Caulifonya.
Jerry Brown learned from his sister to make sure you have money left at the end of the campaign.
Have you researched the break down of absentee request in Colorado? I have not.
I am curious if it is available.
Unlike the average Freeper (who's a political junkie), most people have lives. I don't blame them.
The potential of an October surprise is why you need large sums of money at the end, as insurance to cancel it out with wall-to-wall attack ads.
Best Tactic:
One week before election; Romney campaign should open its books and show where their money came from and what they spent it on: challenge Obama to do same. I truly beleive that these guys are actually as squeaky clean as they appear; because they realize the moral magnitude of their task and charge.
A lot canhappen in the next few weeks. I’m not counting out an October surprise. In fact, I’m expecting it. And the next two debates. I hope Romney can keep up the momentum.
all a crock. they say this so obama’s huge rush of ads that will dwarf romney’s ca have cover of being a response move to romney’s ads.
The time to say the Romney campaign had a high risk strategy was back in the summer, when it wasn’t very clear if Romney would be buried by Obama’s barrage of negative ads by the time October rolled around, and end up behind in the polls by double digits. Mid-October has rolled around and Romney is dead even with Obama. It’s clear that the gamble has paid off. If Romney doesn’t spend his campaign money *before* the elections, when is he going to spend it? This isn’t a high-risk strategy - it’s the sprint to the finish line during which he will find out whether his relative lack of charisma vis-a-vis Obama can be made up with campaign ads. This is the year we find out if McCain could have won if he hadn’t been outspent 3 to 1 by Obama.
I hope they add Ohio to their carpet bombing plan.
As I say a strategy based on 2008 isn't going to work very well in 2012 in the West...
Copy that.
They’re testing the water with these two false-flags.
- The racist T-Shirt over at Asocialist Press
- The window supposedly shot by magic bullet at Obama HQ
They’re seeing how much smear they can get away with.
Maybe. The Libya coverup issue is growing and growing. People in general, not just conservatives, don't like being blatantly lied to on matters like this.
This was indeed very high risk - the debate result however makes it much, much more effective. It was not known at the time that this would be the atmosphere for this strategy to have its final phases implemented.
Yep, no risk in spending late.
The risk is in spending early, but the theory is/was to define your opponent and he can never overcome it.
It was a natural strategy for Obama - his campaign reduces to “yeah but the other guy would be even worse.”
Who knows which is right in any given race. The old saw in politics is: “If you win, everything you did was right; if you lose everything you did was wrong.”
It still ain’t a mature science.
You can blame a LOT of Obama’s wasted efforts on the DailyKos/MediaMatters mantra of WINNING EACH AND EVERY NEWS CYCLE..
The cnventional liberla nutjob/Alinsky mantra being to define your opponent, before he gets a chance to define himself. Unfortunately, that got blown up by 68 million people watching a likely-stoned Obama epic-fail his way through the debate.
I know. But the dummycrats I talk to still think they're gonna win it, despite the fact Romney is polling better in AZ than McCain did in 2008 (and it's McCain's home state!)
I hope they waste lots of resources in their futile quest to win it.
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