In an open letter to President Obama in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mitt Romney doesn’t hold back:
Mr. President, forgive me for being blunt, but when it comes to economic affairs, you’re out of your depth. Unlike you, I am not a career politician. Unlike you, I’ve spent more than two decades working in the private sector, starting new businesses and turning around failing ones. Undoing the damage you’ve done will be a daunting challenge. But I’ve learned a thing or two about how government policies can kill private investment and stifle job creation and I have a plan to get government out of the way.
Mr. President, while campaigning for the presidency nearly four years ago, you declared that you were “absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”
Mr. President, the American people are tired of the grandiose promises. And they are even more tired of the paltry results.
Some conservatives are critical of this “Obama’s a nice guy, but out of his element” message that Romney’s been pushing, and they do raise valid issues. But the fact is a lot of the voters Romney’s trying to reach out to do think Obama’s a nice guy, regardless of whether he is or not. If Romney starts attacking Obama as a person, these voters may just tune out.
As his column shows, there are ways to forcefully attack the president’s record without getting personal. It was also well timed to combat the spin from the White House over the jobs numbers out today. The unemployment rate dropped slightly last month to 8.1 percent, but as John Steele Gordon wrote earlier today, that’s because Americans are giving up on looking for employment. Jim Pethokoukis calculates that if the workforce participation rate stayed the same as it was when President Obama was elected, the current unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. The White House is counting on the falling official unemployment rate to reassure the public that its policies are working, but as conservatives have pointed out today, this number alone tells us little about the current health of the economy.
Romney should attack Obama both personally and administratively as either an incompetent or morally obtuse. I frankly believe he is both. And that goes double regarding his middle East actions and inactions. My main fear is the extremists in the GOP who keep pushing for a religiously inspired agenda that will lose many women and men as well. The issue of abortion is a religious issue. There is not a scientific consensus on precisely when life begins. Missionary activities should be kept out of the electoral process. James Madison's Article VI of the Constitution is explicit on this. But the extremists in the GOP are either fools or secretly working for Obama.
The problem with attacking personally is you set yourself up as a judge. That's a loser altogether. Yes, Malkin is right that Obama and his cronies are a bunch of scumbags, but there is nothing to gain by Romney saying it. Quite the opposite.
Romney shouldn't attack Obama personally (like don't call Obama a liar, even though he is one — because no one else is calling him a liar whereas every single Democrat called Bush a liar, so much so that it was accepted as a normal thing to say); however, there is no reason for Romney to praise Obama as a nice guy (so uncommitted voters can say that even Romney says Obama's a good guy). Romney needs to be prepared to say that Obama is wrong without apology ("There you go again, Mr. President"). It's important that Romney seem both Presidential and seem like he would be President of all Americans — so don't call him names but stick to the message, which would be heavy on the economy, but in terms of an America that is for every American!
Stress how cheap energy and gas prices will stimulate the economy (especially with the Obama inflation that's on the horizon), how reducing EPA regulations will also stimulate jobs by freeing American entrepreneurs to use their savings to start businesses, not hire environmental lawyers to try to keep from going bankrupt (and maybe mention how California should not be turning into a dust bowl when the price of food is going through the roof), and point out that answers like a stimulus to give teachers money while taking away the voucher program for poor kids in DC is only a payoff to Obama's union donors, which is also what his green energy loan guarantees are all about (and mention that yes, Obama has doubled green energy while shutting down drilling in the Gulf as well as Keystone and all the permits approved before he came into office, yes, he's doubled green energy all the from 2% of our energy to 3.5%). Don't call him names, but don't call him a good guy either!
Alana Goodman is right to the extent that Romney has a fine line to walk here. The fact is that an awful lot of Americans voted for Obama in 2008 and, psychologically, it is very difficult for most people to admit that they made even a small mistake, to say nothing of a colossal mistake like entrusting the country to this far Left charlatan. It's cognitive dissonance at work, big time. Somehow Romney (and the PAC's) need to give those millions of Americans who believe that they are wise and perceptive voters find a way to reconcile the fact that they made a huge error with Obama. One tack may be to emphasize to these voters that Americans had the audacity to trust Obama in 2008 when he said he would [fill in the blank]. The problem, Romney could argue, is not that American voters made a mistake but that they were betrayed (and maybe "betrayed" is too strong…); that Obama got his chance for the last 4 years and was given every benefit of the doubt and every opportunity by Americans but he simply can't be trusted given the way Obama has governed and the mess he has created. Yes, Americans are good-hearted, patient folk, blah blah blah, BUT: Obama has created such a mess that we can no longer put off the task of cleaning up the mess and we certainly can't trust Obama to clean it up.
The Romney campaign headquarters should have copies of the sign Carville made for Clinton, IT"S THE ECONOMY STUPID. n nRomney should never utter more than ten words without mentioning the parlous state of the Obama economy, no matter what sort of questions he is asked.
I agree, the msm and liberals would much rather argue if Obama is a bad guy than if he is a competent president. Most presidents are expected to be assholes to some extent.
"Some conservatives are critical of this “Obama’s a nice guy, but out of his element” message that Romney’s been pushing" n nNot me! Romney is doing exactly what I would advise him to do. I am convinced Obama is one of the nastiest men who has ever been elected president. He is the equal of LBJ and Nixon in the nasty department—but most Americans disagree with me! They think Obama is a genuinely nice guy. These same people are also afraid of being charged with racism. Life sucks and then you die. Did somebody tell you life was fair? Well, it wasn't me.
Yes, Romney must remain diplomatic, tactful and focussed on the adult stuff…but there is no reason why super-PACs, pundids, bloggers and citizens should hold back. Your Prez is an unbelievable incompetent, an international joke, an over-the-top character who would be unbelievable in a novel. I wonder how many apparent supporters are in shock, unwilling to aknowledge even to themselves that they simply cannot vote for this guy again.