In a preview of what’s to come during the general election fight, President Obama took a mocking and unusually personal swipe at Mitt Romney during a speech on the GOP budget today:
OBAMA: One of my potential opponents, Governor Romney, has said that he hoped a similar of version of this plan from last year would be introduced on day one of his presidency. He said that he’s very supportive of this new budget. And he even called it marvelous — which is a word you don’t often hear when describing a budget. [Laughter]. That’s a word you don’t often hear generally. [Laughter].
That’s because using the word “marvelous” is totally weird, unless you’re Obama or one of his speechwriters. Maybe Romney picked up the term from “Mad Men,” because he’s so old-fashioned he thinks it’s the evening news (that last nonsensical insult was David Axelrod’s contribution to the “Romney is uncool and out-of-touch” debate this morning).
It sounds like the Obama campaign is finally rolling out that personal-attack strategy they floated last summer to define Romney as “weird” and “awkward.” As Politico reported last August:
The onslaught would have two aspects. The first is personal: Obama’s reelection campaign will portray the public Romney as inauthentic, unprincipled and, in a word used repeatedly by Obama’s advisers in about a dozen interviews, “weird.”
“First, they’ve got to like you, and there’s not a lot to like about Mitt Romney,” said Chicago Democratic consultant Pete Giangreco, who worked on Obama’s 2008 campaign. “There’s no way to hide this guy and hide his innate phoniness.”
A senior Obama adviser was even more cutting, suggesting that the Republican’s personal awkwardness will turn off voters.
“There’s a weirdness factor with Romney, and it remains to be seen how he wears with the public,” the adviser said, noting that the contrasts they’d drive between the president and the former Massachusetts governor would be “based on character to a great extent.”
It won’t be a stretch to define Romney as strange, especially with the media and Hollywood willing to play along. The worst thing Romney can do is to go on the defense or try to refute these attacks. No matter what he does, he’s not going to seem cool, so he shouldn’t even bother to try that. But he will be able to draw a contrast between his own campaign and Obama’s if he declines to get into the mud, and keeps the focus on substance, not personality. And if Zooey Deschanel’s and Michael Cera’s careers prove anything, sometimes the public likes awkward.
Hmm… 'phoniness' coming from the Obama's camp – the teleprompter in chief. Romney should follow Reagan and fight back with humor. n nWe are going to see how slimy Obama really is – especially as an former president. Can't wait for the race hustler to emerge as he gets desperate.
Obama must really have some deep contempt for his supporters in appealing to them with snide mockery of his opponent. Oh, wait what am I thinking … he knows they love this stuff.
Forget Mad Men, I am thinking Billy Crystal and Saturday Night Live in the mid 1980s — the ""You look… mahvelous!" n nBut all Obama is doing is what Romney himself has been doing — just attacking the other guy rather than debating any policy issues.
When he is awkward, Romney seems most genuine. Obama mocking Romney might be a plus for Romney. America really doesn't like bullies. It's also a far cry from ignoring all the negative garbage Obama supporters say and being nasty yourself. Obama is certainly not one for introspection, either. Maybe this will be how the people see through Obama and his MSM spin-meisters!
I watched the Obama AP video which I found on C Span. Obama as the years go by has a barely disguised, angry demeaner. You can see it when his eyes flash, At this event while angry he had almost no affect at all just reading the telepromptor with his head bent over none of the usual fire and brimstone. I would add that he seemed very smug at times with some extra lip biting to show faux humility. n nHe seemed hesitant during the q & a using his technique of word salads to obfuscate and run out the clock. The word salads don't make sense because you can't really follow them. It was such a politized, lecturing partisan attack on Republicans that I don't know why they didn't get up and walk out. Everything he said a million times before. I could complete his sentences. Maybe they were really on their iPads because if the news editors were really listening now that would be scary.
Obama has become the prime example of the comtemptuous elites. Marvelous is not 'cool"? What does he think do the milions of HIS supporters say when they talk? The Obama of 2008 has totally disappeared…hopefully so will the Obama of 2012..back to Chicago and his minions..
"Word Salad" is usually enough to diagnose a serious mental illness — or at least to justify an involuntary psych commitment. Hmmm….. n nHmmmmmmm…….. n n:)
I will take Romney's"weirdness"but business knowledge over slimeball BHO who knows zilch about how to run a business,much less a country. And he shows his man-childness by mocking Romney.
If anything, Obama doesn't go far enough. The forces at work here are far greater than Willard Romney or Paul Ryan. This election is a last desperate attempt to cement the consolidation of wealth and power into the hands of the very few. Changing American demographics are unmistakable and irreversable; the voting population is trending against them. "They" need to re-write, to undo, and to grab as much as possible while they can and, most of all, they need another partisan S.C Justice working on their behalf. This situation is the 3rd Rail Obama only hints about because Democrats need money too. (Which goes to my case for an Amendment taking the money out of campaigns and drastically newtering monied lobbying, but that is another topic.)
The word "marvelous" is used in the King James Bible in Isaiah, chapter 29, where God states that, in the last days, he will perform "a marvelous work and a wonder", a miracle that will astound those who think themselves wise. Mormons cite this passage frequently, believing that it is a prophecy about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon as an affirmation that God is still actively involved in the world and will fulfill all his promises to Abraham and Israel. It is common vocabulary for any Mormon. It is ironic that Obama would attack the use of that word, since he thereby demonstrates that he, Obama, is one of the people who think themselves wise but are in fact clueless.