A new Internet ad by the president’s reelection campaign features a portrait of the first family asking supporters to “help the Obamas stand up for working Americans.” The appeal, a departure from the typical Obama messaging, provides an early glimpse of the role the president’s wife and daughters are likely to play in his campaign.
In the months to come, political strategists expect to see the first family used as a political asset. [...]
“It’s a way to humanize them, and it’s also a way to signal youth and vitality,” Gillespie said. “It helps when you have an attractive family to use as a backdrop.”
Obama 2012
Do It For TheMy Children
But don't worry,the article is very careful to point out that Republicans do it too. You know, like Rick Santorum:
Rick Santorum left the campaign trail in Florida to be with his sick daughter and speaks often of his family.
See! Santorum brought his daughter into the campaign by letting her get sick so he could leave the campaign trail. So the same thing as Obama.
And Obama's words of encouragement to his daughters should leave everyone impressed with just how important this election is:
And I always tell Malia and Sasha, ‘Look, you guys, I don’t worry about you.’ I mean, I worry the way parents worry — but they’re on a path that is going to be successful, even if the country as a whole is not successful.
I think a second Obama terms takes the "if" out of the equation.
But nevermind that -- look at those girls' dimples! Aren't those two just adorable?
Stephen Hayes at the Weekly Standard draws the contrast between Obama's kineticism in Libya and ostrichism regarding Syria:
On March 28, 2011, Barack Obama defended his decision to intervene days earlier with military force in Libya, arguing that for the United States to stand by without responding would have been “a betrayal of who we are.”
"To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and—more profoundly—our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are," Obama said. "Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as president, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action."
Amnesty International reported at the time “hundreds have died in Libya since unrest began.” Others put the death toll in Libya as high as 1,000.
The death toll in Syria today is at least five times that number, with some opposition and human rights groups putting the figure as high as 8,500.
The United States, it seems, is suddenly very capable of turning a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. Why is our inaction now not a betrayal of who we are?
What if the difference between our response to Libya and Syria is found in these Obama words: "I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action"?
What if Obama is refusing to act unless or until there are imminent images of slaughter and mass graves?
Over at Just One Minute, Tom Maguire wrote about Team Obama trying to come up with a new slogan since Hope has left the building and Change has been abysmal.
WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Winning The Future. Greater Together. We Don't Quit.
They may not be official but those are all phrases that could in one form or another be candidates to become President Barack Obama's re-election slogan.
So TM put out the call to his readers:
I know we can help.
I am nothing if not helpful. And besides, TM called me out specifically:
Over to Hit et al...
Aaaaaand...we were off to the races. Figured I collect and re-print my offerings here for posteriority.
Obama 2012
Change is...Painful
Obama 2012
You wouldn't like me as a scorned ex-President
Obama 2012
Fore More Years
Obama 2012
Over the precipice together
Obama 2012
Having second thoughts? Doubts? Regrets? It's not me, it's you.
Obama 2012
If you strike me down I shall become more pitiful than you could possibly imagine
Obama 2012
Like none of the other presidents on the dollar bills
Obama 2012
Check the Box Marked "Present"
Just like me
Obama 2012
Don't Vote for Some Rich Old White Dude.
Vote for the Rich Black Guy.
He's way cooler
Obama 2012
In 2008 you proved you weren't a racist.
It's all on the line again in 2012.
Obama 2012
You Can't Spell America without "Me" and "I"
Obama 2012
We're Like So Almost Out of the Ditch
Obama 2012
If The Last Four Years Didn't Kill You, It Only Made You Stronger.
You're Welcome.
Obama 2012
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a nation who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the free shit that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up your free contraceptives, and shut the hell up. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
Obama 2012
A Tyranny Sincerely Exercised for the Good of Its Victims
Obama 2012
This is going to hurt you more than it hurts me
Obama 2012
I Do Think At Some Point, You've Made Enough Money
Obama
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
Obama 2012
A Republic, You Can't Keep It
Obama 2012
We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident, That Some Men Are Created More Equal Than Others
Obama 2012
It Takes a Pillage
Obama 2012
Let the Wookie Win
Obama 2012
We can do this the hard way or the easy way. Or the medium way. Or the semi-medium-easy-hard way. Or the sort of hard with a touch of awkward-easy-difficult-challenging way.
America: ...
Obama 2012: So that's how you wanna play it?
Obama 2012
Because Kate Upton is not 35 years old
Obama 2012
OPM for the Masses
(OPM = Other People's Money)
Obama 2012
The Arc of History Is Long, But It Bends Toward Just Us
Obama 2012
Get All You Can, Can All You Get and Sit on Your Can
Obama 2012
An election of biblical proportions. Old Testament, real wrath of God type stuff
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Four years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes.
The dead rising from the grave!
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!
Obama 2012
Your Lips Say No, But Your Eyes Say Yes
Obama 2012
Like Reagan Said, I'm From The Government And I'm Here to Help
Obama 2012
OK (ok ok ok). Just A Little Pin Prick. There'll Be No More . . . AAAAAHHHHHHH . . . But You May Feel A Little Sick
Obama 2012
Like You Really Have A Say In The Matter
Obama 2012
Somebody Somewhere Is Happy And I Must Put A Stop To It
Obama 2012
You Don't Have To Fall In Love, You Just Have To Fall In Line
Obama 2012
Come On Baby, I Promise I'll Respect You In The Morning
Obama 2012
If I Don't Win And The Oceans Start Rising Again, That's On You
Obama 2012
Now With 62% More Cynicism
Obama 2012
We Are The Folks Whose Policies Helped Devastate Our Middle Class. We Drove Our Economy Into A Ditch. You Know What, We Really Screwed Up
Obama 2012
I Don't Care. I Am Awesome.
Obama 2012
Four More Years And I'll Introduce You To The Concept Of A Quadrillion
Obama 2012
Don't Make Me Steal All The "O's" Off The White House Keyboards
Obama 2012
It's Not The Economy, Stupid. It's Stupid Economy
Obama 2012
Try Not To Think Of An Elephant
Obama 2012
'If I Don't Have This Done In Three Years, Then There's Going To Be A One-Term Proposition' Was Totally Not What I Meant To Say
Obama 2012
Creating Or Saving Millions of Jobs . . . For Strawmen
Obama 2012
Membership Has Its Privileges
Obama 2012
My Therapist Tells Me I Need This
Obama 2012
Some Say That This Is The Most Important Election In Our Nation's History. I Agree. I'm Mean, Come On, It's Got Me In It.
Obama 2012
You Can No More Disown Me As Your President Than I Can Disown My Own Typical White Grandmother
Obama 2012
Don't Worry - If Polls Show It Will Help, I'll Totally Bomb Iran
Obama 2012
Have You Looked At The Crease In My Pants Lately?
Obama 2012
Let Me Put It This Way. Have You Ever Heard Of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? Morons.
Obama 2012
Eric, Don't Call My Bluff
Obama 2012
If You're Not Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago That's Probably Because You Didn't Donate To My Campaign Last Time. Don't Make That Mistake Again.
Obama 2012
You Liked The Greek Columns, Didn't You? I Can Get Columns Again, Bigger Columns. I'll Totally Go All Out On The Columns.
Obama 2012
Espoir Et Changement Sont Morts. Vive Le Espoir Et Changement
Obama 2012
Have I Told You Lately How Important It Is To Preserve The Status Quo?
Obama 2012
No More NewD irection. That's Obscene.
Obama 2012
This Time We're Taking The Training Wheels Off
Obama 2012
You Can't Possibly Fathom How Important This Is. It's Probably Beyond Your Capacity. So Don't Even Think About It. Just Do As I Say.
Obama 2012
What If I Promised To Play More Golf And Give Fewer Speeches?
Obama 2012
I Promise That In My Second Term I Will Not Pass Obamacare
Obama 2012
Look, Let's Cut To The Chase. I'm Screwing The Country No Matter What. If You Give Me Four More Years, I Promise To Be Gentle. But If You Don't, Well, Let's Just Say That A Lot Can Happen Between November and January.
Obama 2012
The Best Things In Life Are Free. For Everything Else There Are Federal Subsidies.
Obama 2012
No Pain, No Gain.
Obama 2012
Let's End Once And For All The Idea That Washington Shouldn't Control Your Every Decision
Obama 2012
Look, It Could Be Worse. And It Probably Would Be If The Strawmen I Have Erected To Run Against Were In Charge.
Obama 2012
I'll Piss On Your Leg And Tell You It's Raining
Obama 2012
If I Need To, I'll Create A Crisis So We Can Not Let It Go To Waste
Obama 2012
You Change Your Mind Now,We Will All Know You Were Racist All Along. Don't Be A Racist. You're Better Than That. Unless You're Not. In Which Case I Don't Think You're Even American. You Want To Be American, Don't You?
Obama 2012
It's WJWD
Obama 2012
America? Things got a little out of hand. It's just this do nothing Congress and that lying son of a bitch Bush and...I would never hurt you. You know that.
Obama 2012
If Everything I've Said To This Point Hasn't Convinced You, I'll Say A Bunch More Shit That I Think Will
Obama 2012
I Think America Has A Great Personality
Obama 2012
Stop Whining Already
Obama 2012
Either You Are With Us Or You Are With The Terrorists
Obama 2012
So This Is How Liberty Dies - With Thunderous Applause
Obama 2012
He Killed A Fly With His Bare Hands
Obama 2012
Would I Lie To You?
Obama 2012
You Should Totally Be This Brother's Keeper
Obama 2012
Let's Make America A Shining City On A Hill. Powered By Wind And Solar.
Obama 2012
If You Don't Re-Elect Me, My Farewell Address Will Be Six Hours Long.
Obama 2012
I'm Pretty Sure You Can Be Bought. Let's Start The Bidding.
Obama 2012
If It Comes To It, I'm Totally Prepared To Gin Up An October Surprise No Matter Who My Opponent Is.
Obama 2012
Homeland Security Has Collected A Lot Of Data On All Of You. Vote Accordingly.
Obama 2012
You Have To Re-Elect Me So My Successor Doesn't Go Around Talking About The Mess He Inherited From Me Like My Incessant Whining About Bush
Obama 2012
If You Don't Re-Elect Me My Presidential Library Will Consist Of Nothing More Than A Couple Of Memoirs And a 2,000+ Page Health Care Bill Bearing My Name That Even I Haven't Read
Obama 2012
If You're Honest With Yourself, Really Honest, I Think You'll Agree: You Need The Firm But Gentle Hand of a Benevolent Government Telling You What To Do
Obama 2012
We Got Off On The Wrong Foot. Can't We Just Wipe The Slate Clean And Start All Over?
Obama 2012
Hey, America: You Mad, Bro?
Obama 2012
Some Of You May Be Disillusioned By The Volume Of Campaign Promises I Failed To Deliver Once In Office. I've Got Good News! It's Campaign Time Again And I'm In A Promise-Making Mood.
Obama 2012
Nobody Has Ever Done More To Serve Than Me. Mostly Lip Service, But Still.
Obama 2012
The Difference Between 1996 And Now Is, You've Got Me
Obama 2012
Punishing Your Enemies Starts At Home. And Pretty Much Stays There.
Obama 2012
I Am A Very Big Believer In Capitolism. And No, That Is Not A Typo
Obama 2012
I Signed Don't Ask, Don't Tell Into Law. But It Is Much More Than Just Words On Paper. In Fact, My Administration Has Long Believed In And Exercised The Very Priniples Of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Starting With Eric Holder.
"Some politicians, they see this as a political opportunity. I know you're shocked by that. Last week the lead story in one newspaper said, 'Gasoline prices are on the rise and Republicans are licking their chops.' That's a quote. That's the lead. Licking their chops. Only in politics do people root for bad news. They greet bad news so enthusiastically," Obama said.
I wouldn't be shocked if there are some Republican political operatives whose lips are moist from their own tongue, any more than it would surprise me to hear that certain Democrats felt the same way in the fall of 2008.
What would be shocking is if actual Senators licked their chops -- not behind closed doors and not about gas prices -- but about the deaths of U.S. troops, openly to reporters.
As Democratic leaders in Congress brace for a showdown with President Bush on Iraq war funding, they issued a blunt threat to GOP colleagues: Challenge the White House strategy or be wiped out in 2008.
"We're going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) told reporters yesterday. "Senator Schumer has shown me numbers that are compelling and astounding."
Harry Reid gave his chops that particular dab of saliva in front of reporters on Friday, April 13, 2007. Not satisfied with just a prediction of political opportunity, he then began practically drooling in eager anticipation of turning the prediction into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
CNN Interviewer: "General Petraeus is going to come to the Hill...and make it clear to you that there is progress going on in Iraq...will you believe him?"
Reid: "No. I won't believe him because it isn't happening."
The Democrats saw escalating violence in Iraq as a political opportunity. They licked their chops. They not only rooted for bad news, they worked to bring it about.
What Obama describes as the American Dream can seem a spare, fundamental aspiration, tailored for a campaign that looks to be fought over who is best equipped to safeguard the interests of middle-class Americans. ...
"That's all most people want," he said. "Folks don't have unrealistic ambitions. They do believe that if they work hard they should be able to achieve that small measure of an American Dream."
It would be easy to draw the contrast between Obama's 2008 lofty rhetoric, as Ace does, by alluding to Obama's "...this was the moment when...the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."
You know what else we could do?
[TheVIMH: Quote Michelle Obama from 2008 for the third post in a week?]
Ok, if you insist.
Michelle Obama's words back during the last campaign sound eerily similar to President Obama's now:
Most Americans, she said, don't want much.
"They don't want the whole pie," she told the women. ...
"There are some who do, but most Americans feel blessed just being able to thrive a little bit."
Birds of a feather, those two. But here's the kicker. Michelle knew back in 2008 what would have to happen if America were to implement the policies of her husband. Eerily prescient:
"The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more."
In Barack Obama's America, the American Dream is smaller than ever. And you can trust Michelle when she tells you it's probably going to need to get smaller still. The government's ambition to control ever larger aspects of your life comes at the expense of your personal ambitions.
Hmmm: "According to Planned Parenthood, birth control pills cost between $15 to $50 a month, depending on health insurance coverage and type of pill. On an annual basis, that means the Pill costs between $160 to $600."
The federal government absolutely believes that it must step in to ensure no citizen pays that fee herself. Seriously?
Yes. Last week in announcing his compromiseattempt to blur his march toward a benevolent tyranny*, Obama said:
“Let me repeat: These employers will not have to pay for, or provide, contraceptive services. But women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services, just like other women, and they'll no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go towards paying the rent or buying groceries.”
Rent and groceries? As if President Food Stamps doesn't already view it as a universal "right" to have your rent and groceries (what is more fundamental than food and shelter!) paid for by the federal government.
Well. It was just a couple of days ago that I pulled out the old 2008 quote from Michelle Obama. Since we're dealing with $600 here, let's go back to that well:
[If the government forced your insurance company to pay for your contraception...] "You’re getting $600. ... Not to be ungrateful or anything. But maybe it pays down a billfor your contraception, but it doesn’t pay down every bill every month.
And speaking of Michelle from 2008, she told us back then where President Obama would go to pay for handing out more free stuff. Pie.
"The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care ... then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more."
Giving up a piece of the pie you worked hard to earn in order to give it to someone else who did nothing (because the government told him it was his right to receive it without working for it) is what is considered Obama-fairness. And if you are not willing to give it up, it will be taken from you. By force if necessary.
One point, though, that seems to have been overlooked by the Beltway media is that the position of president of the Senate is held by the Vice President of the United States. And currently that man happens to be former Senator Joe Biden, a man who up until 2009 served in the greatest deliberative body for almost the entirety of his adult life.
While occupants of the vice presidency have typically only alighted on their Constitutionally prescribed Senate perch to cast tie breaking votes, as Senate.gov notes the position of vice president (itself created only as a vague notion) has one explicit duty: to serve as of president of the Senate: “The framers also devoted scant attention to the vice president’s duties, providing only that he ‘shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be evenly divided’ (Article I, section 3).”
Interesting angle! But, remember the Biden-Palin debate in 2008? Biden rejected the idea that the Vice President could have any role in the US Senate unless it was to cast a tie-breaking vote.
The idea [Cheney] doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.
And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.
Biden was wrong, of course. Article I deals exclusively with the Legislative branch, and that is where the role of President of the Senate is defined for the Vice President. The Executive branch is only found in Article II. And as to when the Vice President actually presides over the Senate, we'll turn to Wikipedia for this:
The presiding officer may be the President of the Senate, who under Article One of the United States Constitution is the Vice President of the United States and may vote when the Senate is "equally divided" - that is, when a tie occurs. While some early Vice Presidents regularly presided over the Senate, in modern times the Vice President has only actively presided over the chamber when it is anticipated that he may be able to use his casting vote to break a tie, or on ceremonial occasions, such as the counting of electoral votes following a presidential election and the swearing-in of new members.
We'll give Biden partial credit in terms of what the modern practice of Vice Presidential involvement has been in the Senate, to which Holmes also refers. But Biden's notion that "as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit" is simply inaccurate. But that's just our Joe.
Holmes' continues:
So, why has the White House declined to dispatch such an able lieutenant to corral the troops and deliver the 51 votes needed for legislative victory? The answer certainly can’t be lack of “access.”
Perhaps the answer is that Biden is Constitutionally illiterate. That's just our Joe.
President Barack Obama again pushed Congress Tuesday to extend payroll tax cut legislation “without drama and without delay.”
...
“I’m asking the American people to keep their stories coming. Tell us what $40 means to you,” Obama said. He has repeatedly said that losing the payroll tax cut would mean 40 dollars less in the average pay check. “Call, tweet, write your congressmen, write your senators, tell them, do not let up until this job gets done,” he said.
One citizen talked about what an extra $40 per paycheck meant when viewed of a span of several months:
"You’re getting $600. What can you do with that? Not to be ungrateful or anything. But maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn’t pay down every bill every month.
“Barack’s approach is that the short-term quick fix kinda stuff sounds good. And it may even feel good that first [few] months when you get that [extra $40 in your] check. And then you go out and you buy a pair of earrings.”
That was Michelle Obama in 2008. It could not be confirmed whether she tweeted it to her congressmen. Perhaps it will come up over dinner?
My tiny, little-traveled blog still gets spam comments. Not too many, but a handful each week. Blogger collects these in a folder for me to review. I typically just delete the comments every so often.
I would like to share them with you. I'm a giver like that. I will, however, redact any links and urls. I'm also a take-awayer.
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A few days ago came word that David Axelrod decided to drag Obama's former pastor and spiritual mentor Reverand Jeremiah Wright into a speech. From BigGovernment:
David Axelrod, chief political strategist for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and former White House political adviser, defended Jeremiah Wright on Tuesday evening in a speech in Thousand Oaks, CA.
Axelrod described the initial news reports in 2008 on Obama’s long-time family pastor and mentor as “ninety seconds of vitriol plucked from thirty years of sermons by some enterprising opposition researcher.”
The link in the quote above takes you to a March report from ABC.
However, even earlier than the ABC report, the Baltimore Sun reported on a Reverand Wright sermon . . . on this date in 2008:
Man should not put limits on what God can do, but that's what people always do, [Reverand Wright] told the crowd. Just as God made five loaves and two fishes feed thousands, God has provided liberators for blacks in the past - from Nat Turner to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and now Barack Obama. But, Wright said, there were always reasons not to follow them.
Some argue that blacks should vote for Clinton "because her husband was good to us," he continued.
"That's not true," he thundered. "He did the same thing to us that he did to Monica Lewinsky."
It was 61 days from the Baltimore Sun report until Obama gave his Major Speech on Race in America -- the speech where he confidently declared, "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother." It was then an additional 42 days from that historic speech to Obama disowning his former pastor and spiritual mentor out of political necessity.
Via Hot Air Headlines, here is Mitt Romney at the January 7 Republican debate in New Hampshire:
“The president is going to try to take responsibility for things getting better. It’s like the rooster trying to take responsibility for the sun rising.”
Well. Maybe someone on Team Romney has read this, a piece I wrote at American Thinker comparing Obama to Chantecler -- the rooster who believed he made the sun rise.
Perhaps it's time to revive my efforts to get "Barackadoodledoo" added to the political lexicon.
Gingrich: I took that vacation to Greece because I needed to see the fiscal crisis up close
This is small potatoes in the primary, really. I have no reason to dwell on Gingrich's June vacation.
But I can't not have a little fun with it, to poke at the utter convenience of coming up with that story now.
I mean, where have we heard an ex post facto politically convenient reason for a previous politically uncomfortable decision before? Oh, wait, I remember now: John Edwards saying he went to work at a hedge fund to "to learn about the relationship between making a fistful of dollars and poverty".
We flew into Jackson Hole on Sunday. My wife snapped this pic with her cell phone as we got off the plane:
That is Buck Mountain in the background. The Grand Teton is to the right, blocked by the tail of the airplane or just out of the frame. It's hard to make out from this angle, but there is a peak just below and to the left of Buck Mountain. I climbed that peak back when I was 20. That's been a few years.
UPDATE: My parents picked us up at the airport. Having arrived early, they headed toward Grand Teton National Park to kill some time. When returning to the airport my mom spotted our plane coming in for its landing -- and snapped these shots:
In that second photo, you can see Jackson Hole Ski Resort above the plane at about 1 o'clock.
President Barack Obama said Tuesday he wishes he knew the full extent of the economic crisis when he took office, if only so he could have let Americans know just how tough the coming years would be.
"I think we understood that it was bad, but we didn’t know how bad it was,” Obama said in an interview with KIRO in Seattle.
Obama sticks the landing. And his foot in his mouth. Let's hope he took the skates off first.
Mitt Romney has not appeared on a Sunday news program in 20 months. He has held only a handful of events in recent weeks at which the public was allowed to ask questions….
While Romney has participated in nine presidential debates and nearly 20 town hall meetings, he has stayed away from traditional campaign settings such as Sunday talk shows and avoided extended interviews with much of the national media. Instead, the campaign has sought to control its message and reach targeted audiences by using social media tools such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. The strategy is designed in part to lower the odds that Romney will make the kind of gaffes that have subsumed the campaigns of other candidates.
Had any other presidential candidate pulled Romney’s hiding act, that candidate would be skewered.
Although not explicitly stated, I think it safe to assume Professor Jacobson meant any other Republican presidential candidate. Because . . . well, we'll get to that in a moment.
Mitt Romney really needs to lighten-up with the press. If he can’t deal with Bret Baier or a behind-the-scenes reporter for the New York Times, he’s not ready for prime time. Via the New York Times:
Backstage can be something of an inner sanctum at a presidential debate: even though they are appearing on live television before millions of Americans, the candidates are used to having their clubhouse hermetically sealed from the public before and after they take the stage.
…
Mitt Romney’s campaign stood out by going into defensive mode immediately, insisting that the reporter stay far away.
…
Mr. Romney’s campaign has sought to carefully control his interactions with the news media this year as it has tried to keep a grip on front-runner status.
Sounds eerily familiar. Who in recent presidential campaign memory implemented a hide from the media strategy?
Here are a few snippets of a piece I wrote about the 2008 Obama. The thrust of the piece was how Obama would talk a big game about wanting a national dialogue -- but his real aim was to shut down debate and silence his critics. But a sizable portion of the piece dealt with how the Obama campaign was designed to limit unscripted interaction with the media -- much like Romney's is now.
Obama's strategy has been to orient the campaign around his greatest strength and advantage -- who could deliver the best speech -- and away from his greatest weakness -- his poor ability to answer questions about how he would deliver on any of its promises.
...
Obama understands that the primary means of limiting the questions for which he would otherwise be forced to answer is to create a media environment in which those questions are not asked.
Liberals, including the media have repeatedly attacked President Bush for making himself unavailable to the media in press conferences and other Q&A formats. Yet as Howard Kurtz described back in January, the Obama campaign has been "unusually insulated":
One moment of absurdity came Tuesday, when reporters on the press bus were asked to dial into a conference call in which Obama announced a congressman's endorsement -- even though the candidate was nearby and just as easily could have delivered the news in person to the bus captives. Obama answered a few questions, but reporters are generally placed on mute after they speak so there can be no follow-up.
Obama learned the wisdom of this strategy, or rather the folly of its absence, when he made himself available to reporters to answer questions about his relationship with Antonin Rezko, who is currently on trial for corruption. Irritated with the questions and unable to satisfy persistent reporters, Obama cut the news conference short, walking out and proclaiming, "'Guys, I mean come on. I just answered like eight questions." Obama more recently went on a 10 day stretch in which he held no press conferences. Frustrated with the lack of availability, a reporter tried to break Obama's silence by asking a question while he was eating breakfast. Obama again deployed the "chagrin defense", this time somewhat fomously, "Why can't I just eat my waffle?"
Romney copying Obama’s 2008 avoid the media strategy?
Well.
It was a successful strategy for Obama. Perhaps we can credit Romney for learning from the 2008 Obama.
UPDATE: Yes, of course. Team Romney decided the day after I ran this post would be a good day to announce the candidate would make his first appearance on a Sunday news program since the dawn of this decade. Professor Jacobson has the details.
Close up, it looks disconnected and blurred, but if you step back, the shape of it all falls into focus: Democrats hoard Goldman cash, Goldman hoards Democrats, and the American people lose.
You can't spell Goldman Sachs without a "D".
If Occupy Wall Street was a genuine grassroots movement genuinely outraged by the idea that banksters own the government, then they would never vote for a Democrat again.
That post in 2008 was based on the reporting of Sharyl Attkisson (now of Fast and Furious reporting fame) detailing how Obama was raking in more money from Wall Street, especially Goldman Sachs, than was John McCain. And it was where this logo was birthed:
The point being now -- if Occupy Wall Street was a genuine grassroots movement genuinely outraged by the idea that banksters own the government, then they would be marching on the Obama White House.
To hear some talk about it -- the next speech, debate, poll, controversy, hit piece, campaign ad, press release or gaffe will decide the entire GOP primary.
Let's take a look back to the 2008 election cycle -- specifically this timeframe during that cycle.
We should vote for a candidate based on his electability!
From November 2007 through January 2008 -- McCain was the most electable Republican against the eventual Democratic nominee. How'd that work out?
The thing is -- McCain was way back in the pack at this point in 2007.
So-and-so is the frontrunner in [insert early primary state here]! And what's-his-name is toast!
Iowa, RCP Poll Average, November 1, 2007:
At this point in the 2008 cycle, Romney's lead in Iowa was double that of eventual winner Mike Huckabee, 28% - 14.5%. McCain, who didn't put a lot of emphasis on Iowa, was at 8%. By the time the caucus votes were tallied, Huckabee more than doubled his Nov 1 poll percentage.
New Hampshire, RCP Poll Average, November 1, 2007:
At this point in the 2008 cycle, Romney's lead in New Hampshire was nearly double that of eventual winner John McCain, 29% - 16.4%. By the time the primary votes were actually cast, McCain nearly doubled his Nov 1 poll percentage, and Rudy Giuliani, who was second in the Nov 1 poll, had his percentage more than halved.
South Carolina, RCP Poll Average, November 1, 2007:
At this point in the 2008 cycle, Romney's lead in South Carolina was 7 points over eventual winner John McCain, 19.3% - 12.3%. At this point, eventual 2nd place finisher Mike Huckabee was at 6.0%. By the time the primary votes were actually cast, McCain more than doubled his Nov 1 poll percentage, and Huckabee more than quadrupled his.
But this time it's different!
Sure, and the last time was different. Except it wasn't. And the next time will be different too! Except it won't be. But this time......blah, blah, blah.
Trying to be the first one to call the race is exciting punditry, and can probably garner a person attention and hits for being provocative. But as for pundits, polls and the press being reliably predictive at this point? Blah, blah, blah.
