President Obama has officially been running for reelection for 18 months. His campaign and supporting super PACs have spent $770 million and counting. But now, just two weeks from election day, he’s suddenly decided to start campaigning on his second-term agenda:
Faced with persistent calls for more detail about what a second term would look like, President Barack Obama on Tuesday released a glossy, 20-page repackaging of the plans he has announced on subjects from energy to education.
Obama planned to unveil the booklet, “The New Economic Patriotism: A PLAN FOR JOBS & MIDDLE-CLASS SECURITY,” at an event in Delray Tennis Center in Delray, Fla.
The president, Vice President Joe Biden and other campaign surrogates plan to hold up the booklet at rallies as they barnstorm swing states in the final two weeks before Election Day on Nov. 6.
Funny that the cutting-edge social media gurus on Team Obama are counting on a booklet to carry them through the final stretch. It’s a bit late to change the message, but apparently Obama realizes his go-negative strategy has failed in the last weeks of the campaign. Romney debunked all the summertime attack ads in a single debate, simply by opening his mouth and seeming reasonable. Now the Obama campaign realizes it actually has to present a positive alternative.
But a sudden shift like this also gives the impression of desperation, and the timing suggests that internal polling isn’t looking as good as the Obama campaign claims publicly. That would also explain the president’s overly-aggressive demeanor in last night’s debate. Maybe he knew he needed a knockout punch to change the dynamic of the race.
I hope to God Romney wins, but it is disconcerting to read such foolishness as a column like this, or others that claim that Obama's aggressiveness in the second and third debates shows he's desperate. n nHas everyone forgotten Rush Limbaugh's maxim, that if you're not on offense you're on defense, and Bill Bennett's corollary, that if you're on defense you're losing. Obama is on offense – that's supposed to be a bad thing? n nWe've known for month's that this was going to be a close election, although Romney had an opportunity, since lost, to make it a rout. Now, one candidate is aggressivelyy seizing the day and doing whatever he needs to do to win the remaining undecideds while the other, our guy Mitt, is being nice and waiting for the day to come to him. n nI hope it works, but I'm doubtful. I tend to favor the brave. What's the saying? He who dares, wins.
Being on offense and presenting yourself to the whole country as a juvenile challenger running for high school class president are quite different.
yah. too many people have told this guy he's "cool" over the course of his life. not very much wealth accumulates to be withdrawn from the treasury of unearned praise.
Moderate Guy n n"Juvenile" is your characterization of Obama's approach, one that I share. But we must not forget The First Rule of Politics: n n"There are other people in the world and a lot of them don't agree with you." n nIf I recall, Harry Truman gave his opponents Hell, and he and the Democrats mocked Governor Tom Dewey as "the groom on the top of the wedding cake." n nNow wasn't that juvenile? n nI continued to think that fortune favors the brave and that not all charges are Pickett's. n nSome are Chamberlain's.
"What the press has read as signs of “Joe the Plumber”-esque desperation over the last few weeks may not be signs of an impending defeat; it may just be the way that Obama has to win, if win he does. " n nRoss Douthat, 10/24/2012
So we hire a million teachers from the UFT to build shovel ready solar panel factories powered by ethanol. Or something. Soak the rich! War against women!
People have been commenting on how Obama has just wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on a failed campaign strategy. Well, DUH! I mean after all, we ARE talking about The World Champion when it comes to wasting money. n nHe also picks losers when it comes to campaign strategies. n