bitterlyclingin
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- Aug 4, 2011
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[After tossing the American white working class male under the re election campaign bus shortly past the new year and doing to him what that lady Texas dentist did to her philandering spouse with her Mercedes after catching him leaving the motel with his amour, the Obama/Axelrod strategy comes in for a little reflection.]
"For the record, Obama won the first majority victory for a Democrat in the popular vote in 2008 since Jimmy Carter, and won the Electoral College by nearly 200 votes. In his Senate election in 2004, the outcome was an oh-so-narrow victory over Alan Keyes of 70% to 27%. Not only was this patently false, but it unfairly accused American voters of racism and xenophobia almost four years after the same electorate put him into office.
The latest Obama campaign effort, The Life of Julia, also demonstrates an odd disconnect with American voters. Team Obama obviously wants to exploit the normal Democratic gender gap in the upcoming election by focusing on what it perceives as womens issues. Their Life of Julia depicts what they see as all of the benefits for women in an Obama-governed world but to a great many other people, looks more like a cautionary tale. Julia takes seven years to get a degree, gets pregnant without ever getting married, the child disappears from her life after age 5, and she ends up alone at 67 and every stage of her life, Julia is dependent on government programs. The artwork lends a creepy tone to the presentation, as Julia goes through life with no eyes or mouth. That doesnt exactly look like empowerment"
Romney, RNC haul in $40.1 million in April « Hot Air
"Team O is left with a strategy which is essentially an amalgam of 2004 and 2008. It draws on 2004 by relying on mobilizing supporters more than persuading swing voters. It draws on 2008 insofar as that mobilization is confined to a subset of the coalition Obama won 3+ years ago (largely the demographics of the supposed Emerging Democratic Majority). As Sean Trende observes in his book, The Lost Majority, Obama won a higher percentage of the vote than Bill Clinton ever did, but Obamas coalition was demographically narrower. The political perfect storm that swept Obama into office has been replaced with the Obama record; Obamas available demographics will have narrowed accordingly
Obamas reelect strategy is visible in the daily headlines, but typically not considered in toto. (Jay Cost came pretty close to it.) Political junkies notice Obamas student loan policy is a sop to the young, the absurdly fictional Julia a pitch to single women (esp. single mothers), the reversal on same sex marriage a balm for Hollywoods big donors, gay rights activists and the media, and so on. Brooks views these positions as the sort of small-ball politics Clinton used successfully in 1996, which has it backwards. Clinton played small-ball to appear more conservative and reach for the center as the economy ramped up; Obama is taking positions to pander to his base as the economy limps.
This is crucial to note because, in a larger sense, it is nothing new. Barack Obamas approval ratings have declined from lofty heights because he has governed as What Swing Voters Havent Liked About Democrats For Decades.
Obama is campaigning as he has governed as an Old Democrat pandering to interest groups, engaging in big-spending crony capitalism while failing to address our structural economic concerns for the common good. Mitt Romney, if he recognizes the opportunity, could turn Obamas campaign strategy into a goldmine for himself
I would underline that Obama is using a familiar strategy because its not really clear that hes ever had to use any other one"
Obama’s Career-Long Electoral Strategy - By Jim Geraghty - The Campaign Spot - National Review Online
"For the record, Obama won the first majority victory for a Democrat in the popular vote in 2008 since Jimmy Carter, and won the Electoral College by nearly 200 votes. In his Senate election in 2004, the outcome was an oh-so-narrow victory over Alan Keyes of 70% to 27%. Not only was this patently false, but it unfairly accused American voters of racism and xenophobia almost four years after the same electorate put him into office.
The latest Obama campaign effort, The Life of Julia, also demonstrates an odd disconnect with American voters. Team Obama obviously wants to exploit the normal Democratic gender gap in the upcoming election by focusing on what it perceives as womens issues. Their Life of Julia depicts what they see as all of the benefits for women in an Obama-governed world but to a great many other people, looks more like a cautionary tale. Julia takes seven years to get a degree, gets pregnant without ever getting married, the child disappears from her life after age 5, and she ends up alone at 67 and every stage of her life, Julia is dependent on government programs. The artwork lends a creepy tone to the presentation, as Julia goes through life with no eyes or mouth. That doesnt exactly look like empowerment"
Romney, RNC haul in $40.1 million in April « Hot Air
"Team O is left with a strategy which is essentially an amalgam of 2004 and 2008. It draws on 2004 by relying on mobilizing supporters more than persuading swing voters. It draws on 2008 insofar as that mobilization is confined to a subset of the coalition Obama won 3+ years ago (largely the demographics of the supposed Emerging Democratic Majority). As Sean Trende observes in his book, The Lost Majority, Obama won a higher percentage of the vote than Bill Clinton ever did, but Obamas coalition was demographically narrower. The political perfect storm that swept Obama into office has been replaced with the Obama record; Obamas available demographics will have narrowed accordingly
Obamas reelect strategy is visible in the daily headlines, but typically not considered in toto. (Jay Cost came pretty close to it.) Political junkies notice Obamas student loan policy is a sop to the young, the absurdly fictional Julia a pitch to single women (esp. single mothers), the reversal on same sex marriage a balm for Hollywoods big donors, gay rights activists and the media, and so on. Brooks views these positions as the sort of small-ball politics Clinton used successfully in 1996, which has it backwards. Clinton played small-ball to appear more conservative and reach for the center as the economy ramped up; Obama is taking positions to pander to his base as the economy limps.
This is crucial to note because, in a larger sense, it is nothing new. Barack Obamas approval ratings have declined from lofty heights because he has governed as What Swing Voters Havent Liked About Democrats For Decades.
Obama is campaigning as he has governed as an Old Democrat pandering to interest groups, engaging in big-spending crony capitalism while failing to address our structural economic concerns for the common good. Mitt Romney, if he recognizes the opportunity, could turn Obamas campaign strategy into a goldmine for himself
I would underline that Obama is using a familiar strategy because its not really clear that hes ever had to use any other one"
Obama’s Career-Long Electoral Strategy - By Jim Geraghty - The Campaign Spot - National Review Online