Posted on 07/25/2012 6:10:33 PM PDT by markomalley
In a campaign in which candidate gaffes have helped fuel a relentless barrage of attack ads on both sides, President Obama has been far quicker than Republican challenger Mitt Romney to jump to his own defense.
Obama's rapid-response effort -- in which any criticism of the candidate is swiftly rebutted in the media -- has so far proven far more reliable and effective than Romney's and that's starting to concern some Republicans.
Romney had been scoring points against Obama by mocking the president's claim to business owners that "you didn't build that." So the president responded with an ad of his own in which he speaks directly to voters, calmly but firmly rebuffing Romney for "splicing and dicing" the president's remarks. At the same time, Obama's deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, hit the TV news programs defending Obama.
Romney has proven much slower when it comes to fending off Obama's attacks. Romney's refusal to make his tax returns public allowed Democrats to repeatedly suggest over several weeks that he had something to hide.
In an effort to blunt Romney's strongest attribute, his business experience, Democrats have relentlessly attacked Romney's tenure as head of Bain Capital, claiming he sent American jobs overseas and lied about when he left the venture capital firm. Romney responded with an ad suggesting that such attacks were beneath a president, which many saw as ineffective. While the ongoing attacks have deflated Obama's popularity somewhat with voters, they did far more damage to Romney, particularly in battleground states, polls show.
Unhappy with the tone and tempo of Romney's campaign, Republicans are urging their nominee to get more aggressive.
"Romney has got to rebut Obama's charges about Bain Capital," said Republican strategist Dick Morris. "He's got to put [his] story on television and get it out there."
But Romney appears to believe that answering Obama's attacks will only extend the life of Democrats' arguments. In resisting rebuttals, Romney is betting that his ability to remain positive and focused on the economy will ultimately win over voters fed up with Washington.
Others worry that Romney's strategy could backfire. That's what happened to Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee. Kerry chose not to respond to attacks on his military service by a group calling itself Swiftboat Veterans, and suffered greatly for it.
"Some people are going to say that if [Romney] isn't responding, then it must be true so they will believe what Obama is saying and accept the distortions without a critical filter unless Romney gets in the game and provides some response or rationale," said Craig Smith, a former speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush.
Obama, in contrast, is following in the footsteps of two recently successful campaigns, those of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush, that made it a priority to respond quickly and unequivocally to every attack large or small.
Rarely waiting for Romney to make the first move, the Obama team now routinely delivers pre-buttals to Romney's major events and speeches.
"The Obama people are in Carville-Clinton mode," Smith said, referring to Clinton strategist James Carville, "where you have a 24-hour team in place and you respond immediately when your opponent attacks."
If only we could get Bammy to wear a conservative mask.
Romney still has live, national 'debates' yet.
I prefer he doesn't say too much right now.
zero is spending like crazy, being more of a dickhead than he ever was and is trailing almost every poll, primarily 'cause HE keeps talkin'
Sometimes the best thing to do is just shut up .. (something zero can't do ... he just hasn't told his story correctly ... yet)
Mr. ROmneyCARE cannot bring up ANYTHING.
Death Panels? - Mr. RomneyCARE invented them.
RomneyCARE/ObamaCARE? - Want to see the pic of Mr. RomneyCARE
imposing socialized medicine?
Ineligibility? - Mr. RomneyCARE’s father was born in
Mexico and it is unclear his citizenship.
Global Warming? - Mr. RomneyCARE is FOR it.
TARP? - Mr. RomneyCARE is FOR it.
They need to relax. Mitt knows what he’s doing. After all, he’s the only Republican that can beat Obama. At least, that’s what we were told by the GOP-e during primary season.
I agree. Bobo is looking desperate and very unpresidential. He may never overcome his UnAmerican "You didn't make that" remarks, and those remarks can be used many times in many ways against him from now until November.
I think it's far too early to crank up the pressure. Hell, at this point the economy is doing Romney's talking for him.
Ya know, I completely forgot about that. Thanks.
He needs to start hitting back hard; at least in swing states. Here in Florida, there is an Obama ad that makes Romney look horrible. It is an ugly ad — features Romney singing — and is really below the belt IMO. Being the nice guy is not going to win anything.
.
.
If only America knew just HALF of what’s in this file:
The best Obama exposure site on the net:
The Obama File
http://theobamafile.com/
The United States Library of Congress has selected
TheObamaFile.com for inclusion in its historic collection
of Internet materials
http://theobamafile.com/LibraryOfCongress.html
Just a few of the pages:
http://www.theobamafile.com/index_next_politics.html
http://www.theobamafile.com/index_next_personal.html
http://www.theobamafile.com/BarackObama.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/_family/FamilyPage.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaEducation.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaPsychology.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaReligion.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaWife.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/_associates/ObamaAssociates.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaIconography.htm
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.