So remember a couple of weeks ago when the Romney campaign’s brain trust decided it would be a good idea to stop talking about the faltering economy and start talking about welfare reform?
Because it would be a great “wedge issue” dividing the liberal* Barack Obama from the centrist** Bill Clinton?
Not only has the Romney campaign’s advertising on this issue been so ham-handed that even Joe Scarborough says, “…the ad’s completely false. It’s just completely false. And I’m pretty stunned.” (Yes, that Joe Scarborough.) Not only has it played into one of the main themes—that Mitt Romney is a chronic liar—the Obama campaign has fought desperately to bring into the campaign.
It’s also opened wide the door for the Obama campaign to let the Big Dog out:
As one savvy political observer noted, “Both sides have negative ads, both sides have positive ads, but only one side has an ad like this.” And you can expect this ad to be just the first phase of a “Bill Clinton endorses Barack Obama” mini-campaign leading up to Clinton’s Sept. 5 prime-time speech in Charlotte, when he formally places Obama’s name before the convention to be its presidential nominee.
Why it just might be enough to stop the tremendous wave of enthusiasm for Mitt Romney’s candidacy generated by George W. Bush’s featured speech at the Republican convention in Tampa next week. (What’s that?….Are you sure?….Well, where will he be?….Oh.)
Anyway.
Look, I fully expect Mitt Romney to experience a surge in the polls over the next couple of weeks. But the election is less than three months away and it still doesn’t seem to have dawned on Romney campaign headquarters that picking fights which allow the Obama campaign to counterattack with political surrogates like Bill Clinton (Bill Clinton!) is bad political strategy.
Can’t anybody here play this game?
*Black
**White
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/
