Stephanie
Diamond Member
- Jul 11, 2004
- 70,230
- 10,864
- 2,040
links in article at site
SNIP:
posted at 12:31 pm on November 6, 2012 by Ed Morrissey
Four years ago, this nation elected a candidate with no executive, military, or diplomatic experience and only a half-term in the US Senate as President of the United States. Barack Obama ran as the candidate of Hope and Change, promising a new path to take us past bitter partisanship and a fresh approach to our issues. Four years later, Obama has been reduced to asking for revenge votes, which I argue in my column today at The Week is no mere gaffe. In fact, its an almost perfect encapsulation of Obamas brand of populism, and practically his entire platform since September of last year:
Im not the only one whos noticed this, either. Marc Thiessen pointed it out at the Washington Post yesterday:
all of it here
When Hope and Change became Spite and Revenge « Hot Air
SNIP:
posted at 12:31 pm on November 6, 2012 by Ed Morrissey
Four years ago, this nation elected a candidate with no executive, military, or diplomatic experience and only a half-term in the US Senate as President of the United States. Barack Obama ran as the candidate of Hope and Change, promising a new path to take us past bitter partisanship and a fresh approach to our issues. Four years later, Obama has been reduced to asking for revenge votes, which I argue in my column today at The Week is no mere gaffe. In fact, its an almost perfect encapsulation of Obamas brand of populism, and practically his entire platform since September of last year:
Stung by the outcome of the deal and the largely accurate perception that hed fumbled the negotiations, Obama responded by demanding tax hikes on the wealthy as part of any new deal. Nevermind that his threshold of $250,000 annual income would include small-business owners. Nevermind that the revenue of such a tax around $80 billion per year would hardly put a dent in Obamas trillion-dollar deficits. Obamas rhetoric soon focused on the 1 percent, and income inequality became Obamas principal focus while most Americans worried about jobs.
Romneys nomination gave Obama the perfect opportunity to vent his populist spleen. Here was almost the personification of income inequality and privilege the epitome of all Obama had demonized during the previous several months. Accordingly, the Obama campaign quickly went negative against Romney, running more than $100 million in ads that focused mostly on Romneys wealth, his business decisions at Bain Capital, and his reluctance to disclose the 20 years of tax returns that Team Obama wanted. Deputy communications director Stephanie Cutter even alleged that Romney might be hiding a felony, a charge that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid repeated numerous times with zero proof. Romneys remarks about the 47 percent gave this strategy one last big boost in the final weeks of the campaign.
Even on a personal level, the hostility seemed palpable. During the first debate, Obama looked and sounded put off by having to even address Romneys criticisms on stage, and offered the same attack lines as his summer campaign. In the next two debates, Obama glared and glowered at Romney, and spoke to him with scorn dripping from every word. Only after the last debate did Obama finally get around to releasing anything resembling an argument for a second term as president, offering voters a 20-page pamphlet that consisted almost entirely of recycled pledges from the 2008 campaign. Perhaps Obama was caught by surprise that the majority of voters didnt view Romney with the same level of disdain, and that Obama needed to make an argument for their vote.
For Obama, this entire campaign has felt like revenge against Romney, and against the kind of people Obama thinks Romney represents. Obama could have spent the last several months talking about his own record and his plans to change direction from our current economic stagnation that has kept the level of employment in the population at or near 30-year lows. Instead, Obama approached this election as a personal mission of revenge, and left the door open for Romney to present the only vision of change for the future in this campaign. Romney defined his campaign as an expression of love rather than revenge. So what Obama said on Friday was no gaffe. Its just the obvious takeaway from a relentlessly empty and negative campaign.
Im not the only one whos noticed this, either. Marc Thiessen pointed it out at the Washington Post yesterday:
all of it here
When Hope and Change became Spite and Revenge « Hot Air