Posted on 06/01/2012 7:26:34 AM PDT by pistolpackinpapa
In the course of a couple of hours Thursday, the Romney campaign sent out unmistakable signals that it intends to fight the guerilla warfare of a presidential campaign with a new aggressiveness and combativeness.
The first signal came in Boston, where top Obama adviser David Axelrod organized an anti-Romney event on the steps of the Massachusetts state house. The event, which Team Obama wanted to keep under wraps until shortly before it happened, was to feature remarks from Axelrod and Democratic state officeholders who would attack Romney's record as governor from 2003 to 2007. But it didn't work out as planned.
First, word of the event leaked last night, and the Romney campaign quickly scheduled an event of its own at the state house about an hour before Axelrod's. Then, when Democrats began speaking, a crowd of about 100 Romney workers, supporters, and volunteers showed up to chant, shout, and heckle the speakers every step of the way. The protesters shouted "Solyndra!" and "Where are the jobs?" and "Mitt, Mitt, Mitt!" while Democrats gamely attacked Romney's tenure as governor.
"I get tweets from some of these folks, so I feel close to them," Axelrod lamented at one point. At another, he said simply, "Look, this is the great pageant of democracy." In the end, the Obama event was overshadowed by the loud, aggressive Romney forces.
It was the kind of tactic that is usually repaid in kind on the campaign trail, and it seems likely -- certain, actually -- that Romney surrogates, and perhaps Mitt Romney himself, will soon face similar actions at their events. But Romney aides aren't worried, saying what they did was both payback and a message.
"They heckle us at every single event we go to," says a well-connected Romney aide. "Just last week, Romney did a speech at the bridge to nowhere [in New Hampshire] and alluded to the 'Greek chorus' that was off to the side." Indeed, as Romney talked about government waste, a group of Democrats stood at some distance and shouted "Obama! Obama! Obama!" Romney faced a similar scene at another event in New Hampshire, in a fishing village, when he and Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte were hounded by pro-Obama protesters. And pro-Obama forces also staged a big protest when Romney gave his speech on the economy in Detroit in February.
So Team Romney views the Boston event as payback. But they also, by striking back bigger and louder, want to send a message to Team Obama that Romney is ready to fight. Romney aides characterize the Axelrod event as a "sneak attack" in Romney's home territory. "The Obama campaign thought they were going to come into our own turf and launch a dishonest sneak attack on Gov. Romney's record," says the Romney aide. "We're not going to allow that to happen. We are going to hold them accountable every single time."
Indeed, Mitt Romney himself, a short time later, said, "If they're going to be heckling us, why, we're not going to sit back and play by very different rules….We'll show them that we conservatives have the same kind of capacity he does."
Where Romney was speaking was another message from his campaign. Shortly after the Boston event, Romney launched a sneak attack of his own, holding a news conference at the headquarters of Solyndra, the bankrupt solar energy company that received $535 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration. According to reporters traveling with Romney, the campaign did not tell the press about the event until the bus was actually on its way to Solyndra.
"The reason for keeping it quiet is because we knew if word got out that Solyndra would do everything in their power and the Obama administration would do everything in their power to stop us from having this news conference," a Romney aide told reporters, according to an ABC News account. "But taxpayers made a substantial investment in Solyndra, there are serious questions about what happened at Solyndra, why that investment was selected, what happened to that money."
The bottom line is, Thursday marked a new escalation in the day-to-day fighting between the Obama and Romney campaigns. And Team Romney hopes it has sent a very clear message that it will punch, and counter-punch, as hard as is necessary.
So, turning the DIMS own tactics against them is “combative?”
What a bunch of wusses establishment RINOs are.
Jeb Bush is going to start looking really, really good after eight years of ObaMao.
I saw the clip...You never saw so many democrats with sour puss mugs!....Laughed my ass off!!!
Hannity showed quite a bit of it...also used some of the quotes in the article.
Thoght for awhile they’d been freeped!
I used to think that dispite my dislike for the Dem. Party, that they did have some pretty smart politicians. Lately however, when I see them using Debbie Waserman-Schultz and David Axelrod as their public spokespersons, I think they have become dilusional. These two as the faces of their campaign are gifts the Republicans couldn’t have dreamt of.
When the media sees obama not winning (probably in October) and starts telling people, especially Christians, that romney thinks he is a god and will get his own planet, people will wonder what they did voting him in. If people actually start studying romney's MA record, that will open a lot of people's eyes. Thanks to the gop/coulter/drudge/fox/rove..... who pushed romney on us, obama will win. Remember romney backers saying only romney can win. No it was romney’s money & now he is playing with the big boys who will have bigger money than romney.
Romney has arrogantly said the conservatives will vote for him & he does not have to reach out to us. He refused to attend one pro-life/pro-family event. He is no different than obama. Pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-gay adoption, pro-cap and trade, pro-global warming....
Besides, it was the people who who were yellling solyndra, and all romney was doing was finally defending bain. How is that brave? Normally people defend themselves. When is he going to talk about the 50 million babies killed? How about how the family will be destroyed if gay marriage is allowed? Oh that's right he helped that cause & blamed the courts. Really brave. Romney won't get real conservatives. We need someone who cares about more than money.
Linda, Linda, Linda. You missed the whole point. You keep using the word “bravery”. No one said anything about “bravery”; the word used was “combative”. See my Post #11. Then, take a deep breath and relax.
Wow!!! Those photo comparisons, in your post #10, need to go viral on the internet.
I thought they were viral, but apparently not yet.
Romney’s desire to be class president is more powerful than his RINO wimpiness.
I’ll take it.
That Axelrod and his parents especially are die hard communists should have more public exposure.Also the reports that the Axelrod family Americanized the family name from a Russian family name is known. It has been reported that Axelrod lineage goes back to the revolutionaries Trotsky and Lenin. Someone in the 1980s in Russia had to know about Obama and his future as POTUSA. The story was told to a USA business man from California at a dinner party in Moscow. Someday all dots about Obama’s history will be connected.
he is not getting social conservatives like he assumed.
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Wanna bet? I’m a social conservative and I’d vote for a crack whore before I voted for Obama.
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