Having seen Mitt Romney, build a lead among the critical Independent voters and veterans, close the gender gap and improve his favorable ratings while the recently restarted Obama reelection campaign stumbles badly out of the gate. And as hid campaign suffers from the Democrats' Bain mutiny and a campaign spokesman who bears false witness, Obama decides to continue his negative feedback loop by attempting to trash Romney's gubernatorial record.
That now seems to be the Obamacrats standard operating procedure. The first thing they do is go negative and try to demonize their opponents rather than stand on their record.
Yesterday, Obama's chief reelection campaign strategist, David Axelrod issued a five-page memo on Wednesday attacking Romney's record on jobs, taxes, fiscal responsibility as governor of Massachusetts. All of the featured speakers are Democrats even though the video does not identify their party affiliations. Today the Obama campaign released a new four minute video and sent Axelrod to Boston to coordinate a press conference to try to build momentum for the desperate effort to demonize Romney.
Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg responded to Obama's Romney demonization effort:
"President Obama’s campaign is willing to say anything to cover up for the President’s years of broken promises and job-destroying policies. President Obama would love to have Mitt Romney’s record of job creation and economic growth. Instead, he’s stuck defending an unemployment rate that has failed to meet his own goal of 6% and an economy that’s stuck in neutral. If President Obama had even half of Mitt Romney’s record on jobs and the economy, he’d be running on it."
The Romney Campaign also offered this comparison of Governor Romney's record to that of President Obama:
UNEMPLOYMENT
Romney's Record:
Massachusetts’ Unemployment Rate Fell From 5.6% To 4.7% During The Romney Administration. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5/30/12).
Obama's Record:
President Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Lower Unemployment To 6% Today – But It Remains Above 8%. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, "The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan," 1/9/09)
JOB CREATION
Romney's Record:
Massachusetts Added Tens Of Thousands Of Net New Jobs During The Romney Administration. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, 5/30/12)
Obama's Record:
Under President Obama, The Nation Has Lost 572,000 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, 5/30/12)
ECONOMIC GROWTH
Romney's Record:
Boston Business Journal, January 2007: “Thousands Of People Are Re-Entering Massachusetts' Work Force As Its Jobs Engine … Continues To Gain Traction.” (Boston Business Journal, 1/1/07)
Obama's Record:
Los Angeles Times: “GDP: U.S. Economy Expands At Lackluster 2.2% Rate In 1st Quarter” (Los Angeles Times, 4/27/12)
BUDGET
Romney's Record:
Governor Romney Closed A Nearly $3 Billion Shortfall Without Raising Taxes And Balanced Four Budgets. (Pam Belluck, "Romney Candidacy Puts Massachusetts Economy In Spotlight," The New York Times, 3/16/07)
Obama's Record:
President Obama Has Projected The “Fourth Straight Year Of Deficits Over $1 Trillion.” (“Highlights Of Obama's $3.8 Trillion Budget,” The Associated Press, 2/14/12)
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
Romney's Record:
Governor Romney Left More Than $2 Billion In The State’s Rainy Day Fund. (Editorial, “Vote For Romney On Saturday,” Charleston Post & Courier, 1/20/12)
Obama's Record:
By The End Of His Term In Office, President Obama Will Nearly Double The Nation’s Debt Held By The Public. (Eric Stirgus, “Obama Setting Debt Record, Georgia GOP Says,” PolitiFact.com, 2/1/12)
There does seem to be at least some desperation to this second line of negative Obama attacks on Romney. As Michael Barone noted this morning "Axelrod is endeavoring not to panic." That sounds a bit desperate.
It must be hard for Axelrod not to panic. Polls show the Obama attacks against Romney's private equity experience at Bain Capital are not hurting Romney, but the attacks have caused much dissension among Obamacrats. This morning we learned that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick joined the Democrats' Bain mutiny. Appearing on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe." Patrick called Bain "a perfectly fine company." You can watch video of Patrick's comments here.
There is more to cause team Obama concern. Last night on Fox News' Special Report, Ed Henry reported that "top advisors to the President privately admit they are bracing for...the monthly jobs report for May." According to Henry, that is an indication that Friday's job report will be bad news.
Today, the Romney campaign released a new video, "Not Even Half" taking President Obama to task for the billions of taxpayer dollars he has given to companies that later failed -- including companies that were run by Democrat donors:
In his Newsweek article, "Obama Campaign Backers And Bundlers Rewarded With Green Grants And Loans," Peter Schweizer noted that more than $16 billion dollars went to companies like Solyndra that are linked to big Obama and Democrat donors:
"In the 1705 government-backed-loan program, for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers-individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama's National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party."
According to Schweizer, the appearance of impropriety was so bad that "the Department of Energy’s inspector general, Gregory Friedman, chastised the alternative-energy loan and grant programs for their absence of 'sufficient transparency and accountability.'"
We are just passed Memorial Day weekend and the presidential campaign appears top have been framed. With Obama attacking Romney for his private equity experience at Bain Capital, and Romney attacking Obama for his public equity adventures as president is the campaign going to be Romney's private equity vs. Obama's public equity?
Romney laid out this comparison in his "Obama's Government-Centered Society" speech he gave after sweeping the primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C.:
"The president has pledged to transform America. And he's spent the last four years laying the foundation for a new government-centered society. I will spend the next four years rebuilding the foundation of an opportunity society led by free people and free enterprises."
Just as the T.E.A. Party folks would have it, the campaign is going to be about the size of government.
Obama would have you believe that Romney's private equity experience is somehow disqualifying because in making companies stronger some folks lost jobs.
Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, blew that ridiculous Obama argument away during an appearance on CNN's "The Situation Room.":
"You're going to have some casualties, but that's exactly what we need in Washington and why I'm so delighted to support Gov. Romney. He understands that our government has gotten too big, there are agencies that need to be reformed, closed, combined, something the president has talked about but hasn't done.
[. . .]
There's got to be a way to take money out of GSA and other agencies that are throwing fancy parties and make it available for the essential services that the American people want. It's not nice, it's not easy to lay people off, but it's the right thing to do if you've got a bloated government. That's what Gov. Romney promises to do."
How else will ever reduce the size of the federal government and reduce Obama's $trillion dollar deficits for years to come?
On Memorial Day, Gallup reports that U.S. veterans support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for president by 24 percent -- 58 percent to 34 percent.
This finding is likely to doom Obama's efforts to gain support among military voters. According to NPR's Greg Allen, the Obama campaign hopes to capitalize on a generational change in the military:
"Four years ago, although he lost the veteran vote overall, President Obama won among vets under age 60."
The Obama campaign's focus on veterans and active military includes a new ad, launched last week, aimed at veterans and military families, as well as support for increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, a revamped GI Bill and a job training program for returning vets.
Obama's scheme to gain the support of military voters isn't going to work.
Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said Obama has failed to keep faith with veterans:
"He is quadrupling health care premiums for military retirees, has quadrupled the number of veterans who have to wait months on end to receive their benefits, and created a jobs environment that has put a staggering 20.2 percent of our young returning veterans out of work."
In addition, the New York Times reports that 870,000 veterans are awaiting response to claims submitted to the Department of Veterans Affairs, a waiting list that has doubled under President Obama. According to the Associated Press, almost half -- 45 percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seek disability compensation.
Democrats lost the veterans vote by big margins in the last two presidential elections. In 2008, Obama lost among veterans to McCain, 55 percent to 45 percent. In 2004, President George W. Bush out-polled Kerry among vets 57 percent to 41 percent.
Based on Gallup's polling President Obama will lose the veterans vote by big margins as well:
"Age makes little substantive difference in the vote preferences of male veterans. Those younger than 50 are roughly as likely to support Romney as are those 60 and older. Male veterans aged 50 to 59 are slightly less skewed toward Romney, but still support him by a 15-point margin."
Peter Feaver, a professor of political science at Duke University, is also skeptical that the voting patterns of veterans are changing that much. But Professor Feaver is concerned that Obama's active campaign for the military vote risks politicizing America's armed forces:
"That is a special institutional role that historically we've tried to preserve by keeping the military as a nonpolitical institution. Yes, they may vote as private citizens. But ... it's not in their interest and it's not in the interest of the U.S. — national security more generally — for them to be viewed as an interest group."
So why would Obama make the effort? Perhaps because the critical states of Virginia, North Carolina and Florida have a lot of veterans and Obama desperately wants to carry those states.
It has been one stumble after another since President Obama officially launched, some would say restarted, his reelection campaign three weeks ago. With the Dems’ Bain mutiny making a shambles of the what was going to be Obama’s main attack on Romney, this may have been Obama’s worst week ever. The RNC produced the following video that makes that point:
The Bain mutiny has grown to 14 prominent Democrats:
It has been such a rough three weeks for Obama that a Politico headline read "Obama stumbles out of the gate." The Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei piece notes that Obama's message is "muddled," he comes across as "baldly political," he is facing Democrat "blowback" for attacks against Romney and Bain Capital and is falling behind in fundraising.
It's been so bad that Romney campaign Communications Director Gail Gitcho made it the focus of his "Week In Review" campaign memo:
By any objective measure, President Obama and his campaign have stumbled into the general election. According to one report, the president’s recent troubles “have shaken the overwhelming confidence of his campaign in Chicago and of Democratic leaders in Washington.”
This week, we saw wave after wave of Democratic officials and Obama surrogates stand up against President Obama’s attack machine. From New York to California, and North Dakota to Alabama, the message was loud and clear. The Obama campaign’s best-laid plans to wage an all-out assault on the free enterprise system have predictably backfired.
These obsessive and misleading attacks – which the president himself confirmed will be the focus of his campaign – have been rebuked by fellow Democrats for being “nauseating” and “unfair” and ridiculed by the media and Democratic operatives as “clumsy” and “ancient.” The media felt compelled to eulogize “the 2004 version of Barack Obama,” who promised unity and a new era of leadership, while introducing the world to “the new, nasty Obama campaign.”
Meanwhile, the current chair of the DNC distanced herself from the Administration’s decision to grant a visa to the daughter of Cuba’s communist dictator, while a former DNC chair declined to endorse the Obama campaign in its current state.
Tuesday’s primaries in Kentucky and Arkansas provided valuable insight into the Obama campaign’s struggles. President Obama has no primary challenger, but is losing significant amounts of support within his own party – to no one in particular. More than four in ten Democrats who voted this week declined to support President Obama.
Despite repeated attempts by the president and his campaign to divert attention from the important issues we face, Governor Romney remains focused on his optimistic, pro-growth vision for America’s future. While the Obama campaign falls deeper and deeper into attack mode, Governor Romney continues to offer bold policies to confront America’s challenges – as he did this week, laying out a plan to give every child in America a chance to succeed by reforming education.
This is the real crux of the Obama campaign’s dilemma. It’s not the messengers that are causing the problem – it’s the message.
It is clear what this election will be about. It will be about the nearly 23 million Americans struggling to find work, and millions more who have been pushed to the brink in the Obama economy. It will be about the failure of our economy to rebound the way it can, and it will be about the outdated, government-centric, liberal policies that President Obama has offered as the solution to our problems. This election will be about our country’s future. Are our schools good enough? Is our economy good enough? Can we do better than the last four years?
Mitt Romney believes we can. And the American people do as well.
As Obama was forced to finally man up and admits he supports gay marriage -- thereby ending his successful straddle of the gay marriage issue, his attacks against Romney's private sector experience at Bain Capital backfired and Obama's campaign spokesman was caught deviating from the truth, Romney stayed on his it's still the economy message.
Recent polling finds that the Obama attacks against Romney's private sector experience with Bain Capital have not hurt Romney. In fact, Romney’s business background is perceived as an asset. In addition polling shows Romney has opened 10-point lead among Independents and has closed his so-called gender gap from 19 to 7 percent.
It's been a good start for Romney -- as for Obama, not so much.
The Romney Campaign is out with another positive video about what a Romney Presidency would be like "Day One, Part Two."
In the "Part Two" video we are told that on his first day in office, President Romney will:
Last week the Romney campaign released "Day One." In that video, we learned that President Romney would start his presidency by approving the Keystone Pipeline creating thousands of jobs, introducing tax reform to encourage job growth, and begin to replace ObamaCare.
In a written statement, the Romney campaign compares the proposed actions to be taken during the first day of a Romney presidency to more of the "same old Liberal policies" under a reelected President Obama.
More Deficits, More Government
According to the Congressional Budget Office, President Obama’s tax and spending policies will yield $6.4 trillion in deficits over the next decade — even after taking credit for reduced war costs.
More of Inaction on China
The Associated Press reports that the Obama administration continues to decline to label China a currency manipulator even after seeing recent increases in the value of the renminbi compared with the dollar. According to the Associated Press, the decision angers manufacturing groups, which have accused China of artificially holding down the value of its currency, the renminbi, to gain trade advantages.
More Job-Killing Regulations that Hurt the Economy
Obama has delayed until after the election decisions on regulating ozone levels and rear view cameras for cars. Rules still need to be written to carry out much of Obama’s signature first-term domestic policy initiatives, the healthcare overhaul and the Dodd-Frank law regulating the financial industry.
Approving the Keystone Pipeline, introducing tax reform to encourage job growth, replacing ObamaCare and demanding China play by trade rules would be a good start for any presidency.
Yesterday, we reported about Newark Mayor Cory Booker saying he was very uncomfortable with the Obama attacks against Romney and Bain Capital on NBC's "Meet the Press," and how Booker tried to walk back his criticism after being scolded by President Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt was caught in a deviation from the truth when asked whether anyone from the White House or the 2012 [Obama] campaign had reached out to Mayor Booker, to make him reel his words. LaBolt answered, "We did not." When the incredulous reporter immediately gave LaBolt another chance, he doubled down on his prevarication
Shortly thereafter, Mayor Booker threw Labolt under the bus by admitting that he had spoken with the Obama campaign before he decided to "clarify" his remarks about the Obama attacks on Bain Capital.
The Republican National Committee quickly produced a video rightly taking LaBolt to task for trying to cover-up the dissension among Democrats concerning the Obama attacks on free enterprise. The video, which you can watch here, sums it all up succinctly:
Dishonest Attacks, Dishonest Cover-up, The Opposite of What Obama Promised in 2008.
The Obama Campaign's dishonesty is no surprise. We have seen such misrepresentation from Obama before. Presidential candidate Obama's distortion of McCain's "one hundred years" statement about the Iraq war is the most egregious example. Even as fact checker after fact checker found that Obama misrepresented what McCain said, Obama continued the distortions for weeks.
More recently, President Obama was caught bearing "false witness"as he complained about others bearing "false witness" against ObamaCare.
Perhaps worse for Obama's reelection prospects, By this morning the list of prominent Democrat Obama supporters voicing disagreement with Obama's attacks on private enterprise had increased to 10. In addition to Mayor Booker, Harold Ford, Don Peebles and Steven Rattner, six more Obama supporters have voiced their disagreement with the Obama attacks against Romney and Bain Capital:
You would be wrong to think that having made such a mess of the attacks on Bain Capital, Obama would back off. In fact Obama apparently thinks it's important to continue the effort to discredit Romney's competent private sector experience. Even though recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal and ABC News/Washington Post polls suggest the Bain attacks have not yet hurt Romney, some say Obama is staking his reelection on the Bain attacks. We will see.
The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney 47 to 43 percent.
Like yesterday's ABC News/Washington Post poll, the NBC/WSJ poll is based on a skewed sample giving it a Democrat-leaning bias. Last month’s NBC/WSJ poll used a sample of 43 percent Democrats, 39 percent Republicans, and 14 percent Independents, if you included leaners. The new poll used a sample of 44 percent Democrats, 36 percent Republicans and 16 percent Independents.
As mentioned in connection with the ABC News/Washington Post poll, based upon exit polling, the 2008 electorate was 39 percent Democrat, 32 percent Republican, and 29 percent Independent. In 2010, it was 35 percent Democrat, 35 percent Republican, and 29 percent Independent. Even with the skewed samples, both polls found Romney closing on Obama.
In a statement that shouldn't please Obama, Democratic pollster Peter Hart who co-directed the poll, now estimates Obama's odds of winning a second term at "no better than 50/50."
More troubling for Obama, the NBC/WSJ poll also provides additional evidence that Obama's attacks on Bain Capital have backfired. Nine percent have a positive view of the firm, 19 percent have a negative view, and 53 percent either weren't sure or weren't familiar with it.
According to MSNBC's "First Read" write-up about the poll, respondents believe that Romney’s business background is an asset that can be applied to several issues:
All in all the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal and ABC News/Washington Post polls should have the Obama campaign very worried.
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that in the last month Romney has closed his so-called gender gap from 19 to 7 percent. Last month Obama led among women 57 to 38 percent. Now that lead is down to 51 to 44 percent.
The new poll found voters would be split 49 percent for Obama and 46 percent for Romney if the November election were held now, but with regard to whom they prefer on handling the economy, Romney and Obama are tied at 47 percent. That is a 4 percent gain for Romney from last month's Post poll.
Romney's improvement comes despite the skewed sample. The ABC News/Washington Post poll used a sample of 32 percent Democrats, 22 percent Republicans, and 38 percent Independents. Based upon exit polling, the 2008 electorate was 39 percent Democrat, 32 percent Republican, and 29 percent Independent. In 2010, it was 35 percent Democrat, 35 percent Republican, and 29 percent Independent.
The poll also found that 52 percent of all Americans identify the economy as the one concern that will decide their presidential vote. No other issue received more than single digits. Like Romney says the presidential campaign is "still about the economy…and we’re not stupid."
There were two other interesting findings from the new poll:
Neither of those findings are good news for Obama.
You can watch watch the Washington Post's Felicia Sommez discuss the narrowing gender gap here.
The new Crossroads GPS ad "Basketball" could prove to be the most effective ad of the 2012 presidential campaign.
The ad is not red meat for right wingers. It does not go after President Obama for his associations with radicals such as Van Jones, Bill Ayers or the Reverend Wright. I doesn't go after Obama's Socialism -- his desire to redistribute all our wealth. It doesn't even go after Obama's extremists efforts to radically transform America.
No, the new "Basketball" ad subtly goes after those who were swayed by presidential candidate Obama's eloquent offer of hope for change and the disappointment they are now experiencing. As the New York Times puts it, the ad is not a "searing denunciation" of Obama. It is more a soft-pedaled, deeply researched, delicately worded story of a struggling family let down by Obama's failure to make things better.
The ad opens with a woman watching her young children playing basketball, talking about her family's financial hard times, with her voice full of disappointment
"I always loved watching the kids play basketball, I still do, even though things have changed."
Her face morphs into that of an older woman. She explains how her adult children have moved back into the house because they are unable to find jobs. And she is not sure she can afford to retire:
"I supported President Obama because he spoke so beautifully. He promised change. But things changed for the worse."
The ad then subtly hits Obama's failed stimulus, incessant spending, the ever unpopular ObamaCare, bailouts, the increasingly unsustainable national debt, student loan debt and the lack of jobs.
As the New York Times describes it, the 60-second advertisement, is a deeply researched, delicately worded story of a struggling family.
You can watch the ad here.
The initial exclusive placement of the ad with the New York Times was a stroke of genius. Is there a better place to reach the now disappointed middle-of-the-road voters who voted for Obama's 2008 promise of hope and change?
The New York Times has had the ad up and running since about midnight along with an interesting article that explains how the folks at Crossroads GPS super pac have been working on the ad since October:
Behind the story of the ad’s creation rests one of the greatest challenges for Republicans in this election: how to develop a powerful line of attack against a president who remains well liked even by people who are considering voting against him.
The concept for the newest advertisement and even some of the lines in the script were culled directly from focus groups of undecided and sometimes torn voters that were held over nearly a year.[. . .]
"They are not interested in being told they made a horrible mistake," said Steven J. Law, president of Crossroads GPS and the affiliated “super PAC,” American Crossroads. "The disappointment they’re now experiencing has to be handled carefully."
According to the Times, the "Basketball" ad will launch today in 10 swing states as the centerpiece of a $25 million campaign, it is expected to become one of the most heavily broadcast political commercials of this phase of the general election.
Today, the Romney for President campaign released a new web video titled "Big Bain Backfire."
The new video is in response to President Obama's attacks on Romney's competent exercise of free enterprise that have triggered a backlash among some prominent Obama supporters.
One of Obama's former economic advisers, Steven Rattner, called Obama's renewed attack on Mitt Romney's time in private equity "unfair."
"I think the ad is unfair." Rattner said. …"[Bain Capital] did it superbly well, acting within the rules, acting very responsibly. This is part of capitalism, this is part of life. I don't think there's anything Bain Capital did that they need to be embarrassed about.'" (Byron Tau, Ex-Obama Adviser: Latest Anti-Romney Ad Is 'Unfair,' Politico, 5/14/12.)
Obama supporter Newark Mayor Cory Booker said he was very uncomfortable with the Obama attack on Romney:
"I have to say from a very personal level I'm not about to sit here and indict private equity. To me, it’s just, we're getting to a ridiculous point in America. Especially, I know, I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they've done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses, and this to me, I’m very uncomfortable with.” (NBC’s "Meet The Press [video]," 5/20/12.)
Mayor Booker's comments so undermine the Obama attack on Romney that President Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, "hammered" Booker's comments. Axelrod's scolding resulted in Booker trying to walk it all back.
Former Democrat Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford (D-TN) said Mayor Booker's criticism of Obama's Romney attack was right:
Former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford said Monday that he would not have walked back New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker's surprising comments criticizing the Obama campaign for attacking private equity. "I would not have backed off the comments if I were Mayor Booker," Ford, a Democrat, said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "The substance of his comments on 'Meet the Press,' I agree with the core of it. I would not have backed them out… private equity’s not a bad thing. As a matter of fact, private equity is a good thing in many, many instances.'" (Tim Mak, "Ex-Rep. Ford: Booker Was Right," Politico, 5/21/12.)
Obama supporter and bundler Don Peebles, said that any attack and vilification of a particular industry is not okay:
"Peebles, who is sometimes described as the largest-scale African-American real estate developer in the country, told BuzzFeed that he was wary of the ads by the Obama campaign and the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA which have attacked Bain Capital. 'Any type of attack and vilification of a particular industry is not okay to begin with." (Zeke Miller, "Obama Bundler Decries 'Villification'of Private Equity," (BuzzFeed, 5/15/12.)
The Romney campaign took this friendly fire from Obama supporters Booker, Ford and Rattner and rolled it up into an effective ad against Obama who has to run on his record of failed economic policies. You can watch the "Big Bain Backfire" above.
It is no surprise that the Obama campaign has resorted to misleading attacks that have been disavowed by its own supporters. They started their campaign against McCain in a similar fashion. It took a multitude of fact checkers calling Obama's attacks against Senator McCain everything from "distortions," to "rank falsehood" to "outright lying."
During Obama's presidency, the nation has lost 572,000 jobs and nearly 23 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work. The unemployment rate has stayed above 8 percent for 39 consecutive month, so far.