In Strategy Shift, Obama Team Attacks Romney From the Left
Doug Mills/The New York Times
After months of depicting Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper, the Obama
campaign is determined to remind voters of Mr. Romney's conservative
stances on issues.
By HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON — So long, flip-flopper. Hello, right-wing extremist.
John Heller/Associated Press
After Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania endorsed Mr. Romney, an ad by
Democrats tagged both as "Too Extreme for Women."
Mitt Romney may be inclined to start moving to the political center
now that he's practically got the Republican nomination won and done,
but the Obama campaign would much rather keep him right where he's
been for the past few months: in the conservative territory he staked
out while battling for Republican primary voters.
After months of depicting Mr. Romney as the ultimate squishy,
double-talking, no-core soul, Team Obama is shifting gears. Senior
administration officials, along with Democratic and campaign
officials, all say their strategy now will be to tell the world that
Mr. Romney has a core after all — and it's deep red.
Mr. Romney's overheard remarks at a fund-raiser in Florida on Sunday
night that, if elected, he planned to slash government programs
(though he has not spelled that out for the voters) gave Obama backers
the perfect opening, and they jumped on it. "Mitt Romney Tells Rich
Voters His Secret Plan to Cut Housing Assistance," said a headline
from ThinkProgress, a blog put out by the left-leaning Center for
American Progress. Democratic officials followed that up with a call
to reporters on Thursday charging that Mr. Romney's proposal would
"cut critical funds for homeless veterans."
On Tuesday, Mr. Obama's advisers saw another chance, and they were all
over that, too. Hours after Mr. Romney accepted the endorsement of
Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, the Democratic National Committee
was out with an ad "Mitt Romney and Tom Corbett: Too Extreme for
Women." The traditional spooky music accompanies video of Mr. Corbett
defending his advocacy of a proposal that could make women undergo
ultrasounds before receiving abortions, and saying women could "close
their eyes" if they didn't want to see what was on the screen.
"Did Mitt Romney close his eyes to accept this endorsement?" the
D.N.C. said in an e-mail it helpfully sent to reporters trumpeting the
advertisement. "Probably not, since Mitt Romney's positions mirror
those of the extreme elements of his party," the e-mail continued,
going on to list a host of conservative Romney positions that
Democrats hope will alienate women.
For Mr. Obama, the decision to start going after Mr. Romney from the
left is as much a logical evolution as is any attempt by Mr. Romney to
move to the center, in particular Mr. Romney's effort now to try to
woo Hispanic and female voters who may have been alienated by some of
the talk coming out of the Republican primary.
As the general election heats up, a central battlefield promises to be
the fights for suburban women in crucial swing states like Florida,
Ohio and Colorado, and both camps are now trying to prove their bona
fides with that population. When added to recent data that shows an
increase in Hispanic voters in key states, the Obama campaign sees an
opening to paint Mr. Romney as out of touch among both women and
Hispanics.
As far as the Romney campaign is concerned, officials say that efforts
to paint their candidate as an extremist will not fly. "They are
grasping at straws," said Andrea Saul, Mr. Romney's spokeswoman. "The
Obama campaign first said President Obama was going to run on his
record and the election would be a referendum on his handling of the
economy. When it was clear that wouldn't work, his team said they were
going to adopt a 'Kill Mitt' strategy. Then came the plan to run
against President Bush again, and then, against Congress. Next they
tried to claim Governor Romney had no core."
Ms. Saul said that while "each new day brings a different made-up
attack from the Obama campaign, what doesn't change is the fact that
President Obama has failed and so is going to try to tear down Mitt
Romney instead of talking about his record."
Still, voters should ready themselves for reminders from the Obama
campaign that Mr. Romney proposed eliminating Title X, the only
federal program devoted to family planning, that he suggested letting
the foreclosure process "run its course and hit the bottom," and that
he staked out a position on immigration that was to the right of Rick
Santorum and Newt Gingrich. The campaign will make certain it is well
known that Mr. Romney just agreed to be the commencement speaker at
the conservative Liberty University; in fact, within minutes of
Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.'s announcement on Thursday, Democratic
operatives were e-mailing the news around.
"Mitt Romney has spent the last two years taking the most extreme
positions of his party, whether it's on economic policy or social
policy," said Stephanie Cutter, the deputy campaign manager of Mr.
Obama's re-election team. "He can try to flip-flop to the center, but
who is going to believe him?"
David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser, said in a telephone
interview, "Whether it's tax policy, whether it's his approach to
abortion, gay rights, immigration, he's the most conservative nominee
that they've had going back to Goldwater." He added that "one of the
key issues in the campaign is to make sure people know that."
But what about David Axelrod's Twitter feed, which has, nonstop for
the past few months, seemed fixated on a depiction of Mr. Romney as
the ultimate feather in the wind? ("Yesterday, Mitt predicted victory.
Today, he says 3d would be fine. He can't even stick to the same
position on THAT!" Mr. Axelrod, an Obama adviser, said on Twitter on
the morning of the Iowa caucuses in January.)
Obama strategists insist they're not flip-flopping on the flip-flopper
label, which they believe can serve them well at any given moment. But
there appears to be a clear realization that for general election
purposes, they may do better with an emphasis on Mr. Romney's
conservative stances.
The reason goes back to the very thing that has, all along, made Mr.
Romney the candidate whom the Obama campaign has always viewed as the
most formidable out of the Republican herd. Mr. Romney, a former
governor of Massachusetts, the architect of a health care plan which
is remarkably similar to Mr. Obama's signature domestic policy item,
is still viewed among many independents as something of a moderate,
and as such, he is more dangerous to Mr. Obama in a general election
than the rest of the Republican field.
That viewpoint made Mr. Romney vulnerable during the Republican
primaries and at least partly explains his fierce embrace of
conservation positions to offset Republican doubts. But it may make
him tougher to beat in November. Mr. Romney himself seemed to
acknowledge his need to move to the center during his overheard
remarks on Sunday, when he told supporters that "we have to get
Hispanic voters to vote for our party," and warned that big Latino
support for Mr. Obama "spells doom for us." While he did not
explicitly endorse a Republican proposal to chart a path to legality
for the offspring of illegal residents, he didn't dismiss the idea
either.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/us/politics/campaign-memo-in-strategy-shift-obama-team-attacks-romney-from-the-left.html?_r=1&nl=us&emc=edit_cn_20120420
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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