I’m far removed from Republican political campaigns, so please excuse what might be a very antiquated view of what works and what would not. But I read that the new Romney ad presenting Obama as a foe of small business and the American Dream is being touted in GOP circles as the ultimate game-changer.
This seems weird to me. It is pretty obvious that when Obama was saying “You didn’t build that,” he meant the roads and bridges he referred to in his previous sentence. In that case it sounds as if he’s making a meaningful if debatable point. But Rommey has edited the statement so that Obama appears to be saying “you didn’t build your business.” Which of course would be a ridiculous thing for the president to say.
It’s not as if Obama misspoke, unless misspeaking means using a sentence whose meaning can be misconstrued if you happen to delete the sentence which preceded it. Which the Romney team then did. Apparently they now think they have a bona fide ”Gotcha.”
My question is, do Republicans think this is going to work? Really? I’m all for tough campaign ads. The famous or infamous Willie Horton ads were based on the true fact that Michael Dukakis allowed convicted murderers to have weekend furloughs, and one of them committed a home invasion rape during his furlough. But isn’t there a difference between a tough ad based on highlighting a true fact and one base on falsifying a statement through editing, and attacking the falsified version?
As I’ve noted before, there is no precedent in American history for a financier to run for President as a pro-business, reduce regulation, lower taxes, let the rich to do their thing candidate. In the coming months, Americans will decide whether the economy is better guided by a former community organizer or the creator of what seems to have been a very successful financial chop shop.
There is obviously a yearning for better economic leadership than now exists. All over the developed Western world, elected leaders are falling. Romney’s candidacy is viable for that reason. The case that he will be a better steward is his to make. Americans are waiting. That Romney instead is ready to devote serious advertising ammunition to the promotion of what is, essentially, a lie doesn’t speak well for his ability to make it.
Watch the ad after the jump:
Jared 
Joe 
icarusr 
TomB 
Clint 
The biggest surprise in Romney’s trying to turn around his campaign on a distortion is… that he and his core supporters appear to believe that they can maintain traction. That the lie has legs. That they can keep misrepresenting the President’s statement from now through November, as more and more people nod along to the implication that the President is a socialist or is “un-American”.
Once the public, even those parts of the public receptive to the distortion, gets bored with this line of attack, though, it’s over. This is less juicy, after all, than things that are connected to reality – Rev. Wright or “clinging to guns”. And then we’re back to Romney’s history at Bain, Romney’s failure to disclose his tax returns, Romney’s unwillingness to articulate policy positions on many important issues. Romney’s team can push those issues back for a while, but he can’t make them go away.
For that matter, how many people are fooled by Romney’s mendacity? Is anybody fooled who was not predisposed to vote for Romney in the first place? If all Romney is doing is “preaching to the choir”, even if his mendacity doesn’t cause him harm, how does it actually help him?