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Axelrod: The Perception That We're Negative is...Romney's Fault
Townhall.com ^ | July 25, 2012 | Guy Benson

Posted on 07/26/2012 3:22:26 AM PDT by Kaslin

Good luck with this argument, Axe:

Axelrod Says Their Attack Ads Aren't Why People Think They're Running Negative Campaign

Scarborough's chuckle is perfect.  The Obama campaign has outspent Romney overall, besting the Republican by a 3-to-1 margin on battleground television ads thus far.  More than three-quarters of those ads have been negative, and many of those negative ads have been debunked as false by independent fact-checkers.  Now that Romney and his allies have hit back with ads correcting the record and pointing out the death of 'hope and change," Axelrod is blaming them for the public perception that Obama's gone mega negative.  Talk about a circular argument.  It's also an ironic one.  Think about it: When asked why his campaign is so negative, Axelrod blames the other side.  Argument confirmed.  There's a reason Obama's favorability has taken a hit in multiple recent polls -- and that reason is staring him in the mirror.  On the other side of the aisle, RealClearPolitics' Sean Trende argues that Republicans are missing an important opportunity to go positive and build up Mitt Romney:
 

While the Obama camp has been trying to give voters what they want, albeit from a negative perspective (and perhaps part of why Obama hasn’t moved the polls with his blitz is that those voters who are interested in Bain and Romney’s taxes are waiting to hear Romney’s side of the story), the Romney camp and his super PAC supporters have been banging their collective heads against a wall essentially trying to re-convince voters that the president is not doing a good job. Simply put, this won’t do it. It is a real question whether the Romney campaign gets this. Throughout the primary process, it focused relentlessly on tearing down its opponents. Thus far, it has done the same in the general election. Maybe Romney doesn’t have that much of a record of accomplishment as governor, outside of the radioactive health care law. Or maybe the campaign simply isn’t capable of telling a compelling, positive story about the nominee.


While I think it's important to continue hitting Obama on his failures, using his words and promises against him, and exploiting his slips ("you didn't build that," "it worked," etc), I agree that the GOP must also craft the case for Mitt Romney.  Unlike Trende, I don't think it should be too difficult.  He's had a "sterling" private sector career (according to Bill Clinton), during which he started and saved numerous businesses, creating tens of thousands of net jobs in the process.  He took over a scandal-plagued, red-ink-stained Olympic Games in 1999 and turned it around into an glowing national triump by early 2002.  And he governed a state for four years, delivering job growth (50th to 28th by his final year), quadruple balanced budgets and unemployment below five percent.  Democrats are on offense, trying to render Romney's time at Bain and on Beacon Hill toxic.  His record tells another story -- but he has to take that case to the public.  Trende writes that many voters are still evaluating Romney:
 

First, by a 90 percent to 8 percent margin, registered voters say that they already pretty much know what they need to know about President Obama. Second, by a 69 percent to 28 percent margin, these voters say that they already pretty much know what they need to know about Romney. In other words, three times as many voters are still evaluating the presumptive GOP nominee as are evaluating the president. Third, among independents -- who are almost certainly the lion’s share of those who have not yet formed a strong opinion of Romney -- 42 percent say they want to know more about his record as governor, 37 percent want to know more about his record as CEO of Bain Capital, and 35 percent want to know more about his tax returns. Just 21 percent of independents want to know more about his wealth, 19 percent want to know more about his family and upbringing, and 16 percent want to know more about his religious beliefs.


If independents are not getting this information from Romney, they're getting it through the distorted Democrat attack machine.  And if that trend continues -- to paraphrase David Axelrod -- that really would be Romney's own fault.


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: axelrod; hitlermustache; protecttherino; rinoromney; romney; romneybotshere
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1 posted on 07/26/2012 3:22:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The American PUBLIC hates ObamaCARE/RomneyCARE,
OBAMATARP/ROMNEYTARP, and OBAMASharia/RomneySHARIA.

What is the difference?


2 posted on 07/26/2012 3:26:31 AM PDT by Diogenesis ("Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. " Pres. Ronald Reagan)
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To: Kaslin

Romney’s opportunity is to show that he is NOT the other side of the same coin as Obama.

Doubt that’s possible.


3 posted on 07/26/2012 3:29:09 AM PDT by mo (If you understand, no explanation is needed. If you don't understand, no explanation is possible.)
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To: Kaslin

These idiots, such as AxelrodIdiot and ObamaIdiot, are both habitual liars and delusional blamers of everyone and evrything but THEMSELVES. Get them out of the White House ASAP, kkthx! =.=


4 posted on 07/26/2012 3:34:11 AM PDT by cranked
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To: Kaslin

I admit it - I will derive more pleasure from the banishment of Axelrod and Jarrett than I will from the banishment of Obama.


5 posted on 07/26/2012 3:38:31 AM PDT by relictele
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To: Diogenesis

They are identical?
6 posted on 07/26/2012 3:39:24 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”—even if they’re stoopid.


7 posted on 07/26/2012 3:48:21 AM PDT by gusopol3
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To: Diogenesis
What is the difference?

When you ax that question, you really don't want the answer.

If you believe that romney would damage the country the way that obama has done, there is no help for you.

The question is: What is the difference between diogenesis and a bucket of rocks?

Answer: The bucket.

8 posted on 07/26/2012 4:04:40 AM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist savages, start today.)
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To: Kaslin

“...Romney’s fault...”

Isn’t everything George Bush’s fault?


9 posted on 07/26/2012 4:05:03 AM PDT by ripley
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To: ripley

David “ the red” lying again.


10 posted on 07/26/2012 4:11:03 AM PDT by scooby321 (h tones)
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To: scooby321

Axelrod (”you don’t need evidence to make an assertion”) has such a distorted outlook on things, I can imagine him saying on the day after the election, “just because we lost the election doesn’t mean we have to leave office.”


11 posted on 07/26/2012 4:18:20 AM PDT by gusopol3
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To: ripley

Going from Bush’s fault to Romney’s fault. This is Forward progress...


12 posted on 07/26/2012 4:22:14 AM PDT by C210N ("ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate" (Breitbart, 2012))
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To: USS Alaska

Diogenesis exhibits an obsessive loathing of Romney that can only be compared with the Palestinkians’ loathing of the Joooz.


13 posted on 07/26/2012 5:03:56 AM PDT by luvbach1 (Stop the destruction in 2012 or continue the decline)
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To: Kaslin

Good article, and good graphic.

Romney DOES need to frame Romney better. He’s already doing a pretty good job of framing Obama.


14 posted on 07/26/2012 5:40:26 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Love the cult, respect the leader, but I simply can't drink the koolaid and die.)
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To: luvbach1

Just ignore him. Laughing at him is OK, but optional.


15 posted on 07/26/2012 5:43:41 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Love the cult, respect the leader, but I simply can't drink the koolaid and die.)
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To: Kaslin; SolidWood; Leisler; greyfoxx39; Tennessee Nana; EternalVigilance; Elsie; MeanWestTexan; ...
You claim SOCIALIZED MEDICINE imposed by Bishop Romney
IS WONDERFUL.

You claim DEATH PANELS imposed by Bishop Romney
IS WONDERFUL.
"Let them 'Try another state' (or die)" you viciously, coldly proclaim
for your BISHOP ROMNEY, author of DEATH PANELS and
RomneyCARE/OBAMACARE.

Are you really so stupid as to CONTINUE to endorse STATISM and FASCISM?

Romney - the Magic RINO - Author of DeathPanels:
"I'm not running as the Republican view
or a continuation of Republican values.
That's not what brings me to the race.

(Romney Video, accessed 9/19/07)



"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party
 over to the traitors in the battle just ended.
We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged
 to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support.
Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates
wouldn't make any sense at all.""

--  President Ronald Reagan



16 posted on 07/26/2012 6:51:35 AM PDT by Diogenesis ("Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. " Pres. Ronald Reagan)
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To: All

I can see a landslide in November from my window...


17 posted on 07/26/2012 7:27:10 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike (Resurrect the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)...before there is no America!)
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To: USS Alaska

The real reason that diogenesis and others on this website attack Romney is because he is a mormon. they would rather have a president who claims to be Christian but celebrates Ramadan and in his book said he would side with the muslims, than to elect a patriotic American who loves this country but happens to be a mormon.

Heaven save America from 4 more years of BarackO>


18 posted on 07/26/2012 7:40:42 AM PDT by IWONDR
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To: IWONDR; Jim Robinson; USS Alaska

IWONDR, you are a despicable LIAR.
I could not care WHAT religion Mr. RomneyCARE is, or observes.

NOTE THAT ONLY YOU, again, mentions any religion at all.

The problem is Mr.RomneyCARE is on HIS KNEES to STATISM,
governmental control in medicine, TARP, Sharia,
global warming, the UN, gun control,
the 911 Victory mosque, and his insane notion that
Hezbollah should get RomneyCARE.

Mr. RomneyCARE’s BELIEF (supported by YOU?) that HE
is more important than Constitutions (he already
overruled one) and the Truth (they don’t call him
Etch-a-Sketch for nothing) is the real issue.

You of course, will discuss NONE of the above,
and in its stead you will continue backstabbing,
lying, and throwing ad hominem,
JUST like Mr. RomneyCARE.


19 posted on 07/26/2012 8:09:31 AM PDT by Diogenesis ("Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. " Pres. Ronald Reagan)
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To: Kaslin

Everything is everyone else’s fault, or didn’t you get the message yet?

Dope and blame. Blame, blame, blame. No accountability whatsoever for any action until the idiot applause breaks out. Remarkable, but not surprising.


20 posted on 07/26/2012 9:00:38 AM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (This stuff we're going through now, this is nothing compared to the middle ages.)
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