WASHINGTON – Wolf Blitzer versus Donald Trump on Tuesday, coupled with Mitt Romney releasing his own birth certificate, which ended up dredging up his father’s birth in Mexico, proved being upstaged by crazy doesn’t bother team Romney. Fox News Channel showed their own brand of wacky or at least woefully unfair and unbalanced showmanship, by releasing the video above on “Fox and Friends,” which brought charges from Media Matters that made the New York Times saying the show may have run afoul of Rupert Murdoch’s rules. That’s funny. All of this reveals Republicans, including their satellite branch run by Roger Ailes, intend to do whatever it takes to win in November or spend $1 billion trying. It’s awakened the Obamans to a reality they didn’t fully anticipate.
Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations. [by Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei of Politico]
That has some Democrats worried about —wait for it— Barack Obama’s brand. The noise you just heard was progressive activists laughing out loud. “Hope and change” sailed a long time ago.
John Heilemann, the co-author of Game Change, wrote on Tuesday in New York magazine about Obama’s “hope” now turning into “fear.” You’ll just have to ignore the unintentionally hilarious thread running through Heilemann’s piece that posits Pres. Obama being a (gasp!) politician as anything remotely newsworthy. As I prove in my book, starting with David Plouffe and David Axelrod, Obama and his team are some of the most ruthless operatives working for a political animal who has already done just about anything to win elective office. Heilimann helpfully quotes someone addressing that Mitt Romney isn’t one of the scarier model Republicans:
A prominent private-equity player in Gotham who supports Obama agrees with all of that but adds another insight. “Among rich Republicans, the view of Obama is that he’s the Devil,” this person says. “But on the Democratic side, certainly on Wall Street, there’s no visceral reaction against Romney. So if I give $10 million, I’m out the $10 million, and I’m gonna pay more in taxes if Obama wins. And I’m doing it against somebody who—I may not agree with his social views, but I don’t think he’s a bad person. And I’m not really into negative advertising, which is what a super-PAC would do … Then there’s the fact nobody on Wall Street thinks Obama gives a s— about them. They think his attitude is, ‘If I lose Wall Street, it’s not the end of the world.’ And they’re right.”
One way the Obaman’s hope to change this feeling is to employ “He’s never been in it for you,” an excellent weapon, because it rings true.
Pres. Obama has the difficult task of running on a first term that was mostly made of half-measures, which has led him into an economic season that isn’t as robust as it would have been had he listened to progressive economists, including doing a real stimulus and a health care bill tied to Medicare or the public option. Barack Obama has reaped what he conservatively sowed into our collective future by compromises that tilted the entire economic conversation to the right, setting up Mitt Romney and Republicans, though Obama couldn’t wish for a general election opponent more target rich.
Two things loom large today. Republicans aren’t as squeamish as Democrats about outside money, another thing Obama baked into the cake and helped Burton’s Super PAC become a “f—— abysmal failure,” as Hollywood mogul and large Democratic donor Jeffrey Katzenberg labeled it. Republicans heard the rumor of Obama raising $1 billion and got stoked to do it themselves, so that now they actually are on their way, while team Obama reportedly is not.
“This is going to be a very close race, but I’d rather be us than them.” – David Plouffe
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the Republican Party was in shambles and conservatives thought their time was over. In 2010, because of the Tea Party, a weak Democratic Party message and with no economic message from Pres. Obama, conservatives roared back. Meanwhile, Ron and Ran Paul continue to build a Libertarian beast of their own, which could turn Congress into a more conservative engine, even as Democrats are poised to own the demographics for presidential years to come, if they can pull off a win for Pres. Obama in 2012.
What happens if Mitt Romney wins?
“We’re gonna say, ‘Let’s be clear what he would do as president.’ Potentially abortion will be criminalized. Women will be denied contraceptive services. He’s far right on immigration. He supports efforts to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage.” – David Plouffe
Heilemann calls that utilizing fear.
But did you notice what’s missing in Plouffe’s patter above? Once again, not one word about the economy and the difference liberal economics could mean for you.
Taylor Marsh, a veteran political analyst and former Huffington Post contributor, is the author of The Hillary Effect, available at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. Her new-media blog www.taylormarsh.com covers national politics, women and power.