Though the Obamans certainly hit John McCain hard four years ago—running more negative ads than any campaign in history—what they intend to do to Romney is more savage. They will pummel him for being a vulture-vampire capitalist at Bain Capital. They will pound him for being a miserable failure as the governor of Massachusetts. They will mash him for being a water-carrier for Paul Ryan’s Social Darwinist fiscal program. They will maul him for being a combination of Jerry Falwell, Joe Arpaio, and John Galt on a range of issues that strike deep chords with the Obama coalition. “We’re gonna say, ‘Let’s be clear what he would do as president,’ ” Plouffe explains. “Potentially abortion will be criminalized. Women will be denied contraceptive services. He’s far right on immigration. He supports efforts to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage.”
The Obama effort at disqualifying Romney will go beyond painting him as excessively conservative, however. It will aim to cast him as an avatar of revanchism. “He’s the fifties, he is retro, he is backward, and we are forward—that’s the basic construct,” says a top Obama strategist. “If you’re a woman, you’re Hispanic, you’re young, or you’ve gotten left out, you look at Romney and say, ‘This fucking guy is gonna take us back to the way it always was, and guess what? I’ve never been part of that.’ ”
Not to mention he thinks corporations are people, doesn’t worry about poor people cuz they have a safety net, and keeps his money in Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts. Not to mention that he does weird and vaguely sociopathic things like holding down a gay kid and cutting his hair or strapping his dog to the roof of his car for a 12-hour drive on the interstate. Not to mention that he has flip-flop-flipped on almost every issue under the sun and actually tried to “take a lot of credit” for the auto bailout he opposed to anyone who would listen.
When it comes to Mitt Romney, there is so much negative to say that there almost isn’t enough time between now and the election to say it all. I mean, this is a guy who employed undocumented Mexicans for years to do his landscaping and then decided his immigration policy would be to make their lives so miserable that they’d just leave on their own. Is that classy, or what?
The general campaign will be interesting.
The repetition about Bain will have sunk in by then.
Romney doesn’t care about people in this country.
I’d like to see more of the damage team hitting Wisconsin to test the waters of the broader agenda Walker represents and start tying that in with Party leader Romney.
Walker may be 2nd tier but if he re-wins it puts the whole Dem Party behind in a year where we can’t afford to make mistakes.
The article is highly entertaining, but some Obama operatives need to talk a little less trash.
Good to see that Messina is remaining focused.
Messina’s right. Swiftboaters taught us the lesson of how money and message can melt a good candidate while creating a winner out of an empty suit. We can rest for a few minutes in December.
…that Mitt will eviscerate by enacting Ryan’s budget.
There really isn’t anything good to say about Mitt Romney, and 99% of what he says makes no sense when a little scrutiny is applied. Look at his recent interview w/ Halperin and the section on pre-existing conditions:
I mean, WTF? Developing a condition while you’re insured is a) the exact opposite of “pre-existing condition” and b) isn’t that why we have insurance in the first place–for when we get sick?
Today he politicizes a Memorial Day service to demagogue about the US military going the way of Europe–what with our defense budget that’s larger than the next highest defense-spending countries combined (including China). Obviously, we need to enact the Romney plan and increase defense spending by another $2.1 trillion. And another $6 trillion in tax cuts for corps/wealthiest on top of that. But Mitt’s going to balance the budget by cutting a couple trillion in spending, from programs like PBS, the NEA, and Amtrak–just not in the first year, because cutting that much federal spending would hurt the economy (unless there’s a black guy in the White House; in that case, spending is out-of-control and needs to be immediately cut).
Nothing he says adds up to anything meaningful.
All of these reasons, and more, are why I wanted Romney all along. Yes, he is the strongest, but he is a target-rich environment.
The most important, the critical factor, is Bain. Bain is the symbol of the worst component of capitalism, and if Obama wins (which I am thinking he will), and he EVISCER-FUCKING-ATES Bain, this will be a good good thing. This kind of SHIT capitalism has been a force of total destruction for the last 30 years. Michael Milken, may he burn in hell, destroyed more companies than Hitler. This junk bond shit has time after time put good companies to the flame. We should outlaw this kind of “capitalism”. Or tax the living shit out of it.
I can’t believe the Republicans picked Richie-Rich as their candidate in this of all years.
Think back to the “Real American in Flyover Country,” anti-elitist shtick they had so much success with in the 00s. Think about how the “clinging to your guns” elitism charge hurt Obama.
Now the economy is much worse than it was then, and the country is much more focused on economic equality and mobility and “the 1%,” and they nominate Mitt freaking Romney?
Can’t anyone here play this game?!?
Does ir really matter all that much who the repugs run?
The memes/sound bites/criticisms of the democrats (all 4-6 of them) are the same regardless who the front man is.
Rich, decent looking caucasian male with marginal political experience?
CHECK.
I want them to beat Willard’s ass like he stole something.
I said it and I mean it, if Barack Obama were WHITE, they would be treating Willard like the clown ass joke that he is.
the only thing Willard has is that he’s White.
period
Is this supposed to be amusing? Obama will spend millions going negative on Rmoney, all while the DNC refuses to part with a paltry $500K to help the democrat in Wisconsin.
This is yet another example of “no change”, no difference between the “two” political parties.
What will be somewhat amusing, but more annoying actually because it proves progressive Bloggo world doesn’t get it– is that if in spite of the millions of dollars Obama is going to waste going negative, Rmoney manages to stay within 4-5 points of Obama in crucial states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, etc.
The resultant carpet chewing, foaming at the mouth, and blame of mainstream media by progressives here and elsewhere will be typical, predictable.
false
The DNC, the DGA, and the DCCC have spent tons of money on the recall. Don’t fall for the PL nonsense.
the DNC has spent more money on the Wisconsin GOvernor’s Race than any other Governor race in the country.
First, this is a recall vote; not a typical “governor’s race”.
That would have been 2010. BTW, regarding gubernatorial elections in 2010, here’s what happened:
The Republican Governor’s Association spent nearly $50 Million dollars to win the governorships in the nine states mentioned- how much money did the democrats spend in these states?
Links, please.
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/08/131158449/gop-s-sweet-wins-in-governors-races-may-pay-off
Now I’m really confused. Wonder where NPR got the data and are they correct, or Followthemoney or could the total spending be something else entirely. Frustrating ~ grrrr.