While pretending that Mitt Romney is the Republican they fear most, the Obama Reelection Campaign, with the help of the mainstream media, has been doing what they can to help the Governor secure the nomination.
Within days of the start of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, the Obama White House got out the word that the Republican they feared facing the most in 2012 was Governor Mitt Romney. As the Obama campaign expected, the compliant mainstream media reported and opined at length on why Governor Romney would likely be President Obama’s most formidable opponent. The media drumbeat that Romney had the best chance of beating Obama was effective.
Exit polls from the New Hampshire primary revealed that the number one reason given for voting for a candidate was the belief that he could defeat Obama. Republican primary voters want a candidate who will get Obama out of the White House, and they will vote for whoever they think has the best chance of doing that. In New Hampshire, they were, to a significant degree, convinced by the media that Mitt Romney was that person.
The Obama campaign patiently waited until Romney won the New Hampshire primary and became the likely nominee before attacking him. The extent to which Obama operatives have endeavored to insure that Romney will be the nominee by attempting to discredit the others who are vying for the Republican nomination is unclear. What is clear is that after his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, Governor Romney looked like he had the nomination sewn up, and nothing could have pleased the White House more.
Unfortunately for Obama, Newt Gingrich’s stellar performance at the last debate, and Romney’s rather lackluster one, made the prediction that Romney would win in South Carolina less certain. The media promptly weighed on Obama’s behalf and bolstered Romney’s chances of winning in South Carolina by reporting recent poll results purporting to show that if the election were held today, Romney would defeat Obama by two percentage points while Gingrich would lose by twelve.
The President cannot run on his domestic record. His signature piece of legislation, ObamaCare, is widely disliked. The economy is in bad shape, and the nation has a long-term debt problem of significant proportions for which he is largely responsible. In addition to a sluggish economy that has led to high unemployment, Obama is facing an electorate that is concerned that their personal circumstances could get even worse. Americans have seen the value of their homes decline sharply, and despite the rosy monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) reports showing little or no increase in inflation, they are feeling the effects of rising prices, especially food prices, which along with fuel/energy costs are not included in the core CPI figure. After nearly four years in office, Obama’s assertion that he is still trying to fix the mess that George W. Bush created, and that he needs another four years to do that, is wearing thin.
Other than killing Osama bin Laden, his foreign policy accomplishments are scant. The Arab Spring, which he championed, has turned cold and dark with Islamists in control of Tunisia and poised to take control of Egypt and Libya. Syria looks to be next. Islamists are also making gains in Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria and Pakistan. Hamas and Hezbollah are stronger than before Obama took office. Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. Iraq, from which he withdrew US forces prematurely, is sliding back into a state of civil war, and may even break apart. Military analysts predict that our halting of drone attacks in Pakistan for the past two months will allow a resurgent Taliban to regain lost ground in Afghanistan.
So what can Obama do to better his chances in November? The President has to change the narrative. He has to campaign not on his record, but as the champion of the 99%. He has to convince the American people that the election of 2012 is a choice between his opponent, a heartless defender of the super-rich 1%, and himself, a tireless fighter for the hard working middle class and the poor. And of the potential Republican nominees, none is a better representative of the super-rich than Mitt Romney.
Romney is in a weak position to attack Obama on his health care bill since Romney installed the prototype when he was governor of Massachusetts. He also doesn’t seem to have a foreign policy outlook that differs in any significant way from that of the President. Romney does not excite the right wing of the Republican base or the members of the Tea Party, and just as there are blacks who will vote for Obama solely because of the color of his skin, there are those who will not vote for Romney because of his religious beliefs. But best of all from Obama’s perspective, Governor Romney came from a moneyed family and made a fortune as a venture capitalist. He has said some things that taken out of context make him look like a heartless profiteer. In short, since he can be painted as the archetypical capitalist, the money grubbing protector of the super rich, his nomination provides Obama with his best opportunity to win reelection.
If Obama can turn the election into a contest of rich versus middle class and poor, he could defeat Romney. The Obama White House and a number of House and Senate Democrats have embraced the Occupy Wall Street Protestors. They have blessed them and portrayed them as Minutemen in the fight against greedy capitalists. The ever compliant media has likened them to the Tea Party, and even though the comparison is absurd on the face of it, the media is attempting to legitimize the protestors. Obama’s hopes for 2012 depend to a large degree on the media’s success in doing so.
Those (Democratic Party supporters and operatives?) who are providing the funding for the Wall Street protestors’ food, blankets, tents and other needs will make certain that protestors appear at every Republican campaign event. The media will report every appearance as a clash between the super rich, fat cat, uncaring, heartless Republican nominee and the down and out middle class and poor Americans who simply want the government to protect them from the greedy bankers and Wall Street tycoons, and make them pay for cleaning up the mess that they, and not Obama, have gotten the country into.
Defeating Obama in 2012 was never going to be easy, but as long as the campaign was about Obama’s performance in office, his defeat was likely. If Obama can successfully change the narrative to a war between rich and not rich, and paint his Republican opponent as Scrooge, then his reelection chances are much improved. Obama is hoping to run against Romney because he looks like, acts like, and in fact is a successful capitalist. Romney’s Republican opponents have done the Governor and the American people a disservice by providing Obama with an ample supply of attack ad material.
They should be ashamed of themselves for calling Romney names like “vulture capitalist” and portraying him as a ruthless corporate raider who destroys companies, fires people, and cuts employee salaries and benefits; in short, the representative of all that is wrong with Wall Street.
However, before the President gets too excited about Romney’s presumptive nomination, he should remember the old adage about being careful about what you wish for.
