
 |
|
Feb. 8, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Dec. 14, 2011
/ 18 Kislev, 5772
Obama is running from his record, but he can't hide it
By
Dick Morris And Eileen McGann
| 
|
|
|
| |
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In his "60 Minutes" interview, President Obama offered a keen insight into his 2012 reelection strategy. It takes some decoding, but his underlying strategic goals emerge. He said:
"The question next year is going to be and then this is how a democracy is supposed to work do they see a more compelling vision coming out from the other side? Do they think that cutting taxes further, including on the wealthy, cutting taxes on corporations, of gutting regulations do we think that that is going to be somehow more successful? And if the American people think that that's a recipe for success and a majority are persuaded by that, then I'm going to lose."
Three relevant points emerge from an analysis of his comment:
-
He wants the election to be a referendum on the Republican candidate and his political philosophy. By posing the key question as whether the GOP remedy for the economy will be "somehow more successful," he makes it clear that he wants this contest to be about the opposition proposals.
-
The president is determined to run as a non-incumbent, abandoning all but a pro forma defense of his record and instead running as he would were there an open seat. He wants it to be 2008 all over again, where he is free to float ideas without taking any responsibility for his performance in office or that of the economy on his watch.
-
He is determined to make the election a contest between two policy alternatives, deliberately omitting the issue of competence. He wants all the votes his point of view will permit him to garner despite his obvious incompetence in implementing it. He's like an incompetent employee hoping to save his job by advocating a broad-based shift in his corporation's philosophy in the hopes that his bosses will ignore his own poor performance.
Obama seems to want to turn the election into a referendum on policy, almost as if it were an issue on the ballot rather than a president seeking reelection. While this preference is understandable, given his dismal record, the Republicans cannot let him get away with it.
The key question Republicans must pose to the president: "What are you planning to do in the next four years to get the economy moving that you have not tried and failed with during your first term, especially during that portion of the term when you had total control of Congress and still couldn't fix the economy?"
Of course, the other part of Obama's reelection strategy will be a slash-and-burn approach to attacking his opponent. Using the cooperation of the media, he will throw any accusation that comes to mind against his Republican adversary in the hope that enough sticks to help him win.
But in this essentially negative approach to the campaign, he is laboring under the handicap that the Republican candidate will have been thoroughly vetted during the primaries. Any negatives that exist will have been aired so extensively that they will pack little punch in the fall. In this respect, the primary contest is serving to inoculate the eventual Republican candidate by raising all the negatives and exhausting them before the fall election even starts.
As for the rest of Obama's strategy it won't work. Nobody is going to forget the current state of the economy or fail to remember how ineffective the stimulus program was at doing anything other than digging us deeper into self-destructive debt. The fact is that an incumbent president is up for reelection and there is more than a clash of philosophies at issue. There will be two men, and one of them is a demonstrated failure.
=<<
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
| BUY THE BOOK |
|
Click HERE to purchase it at a 46% discount. (Sales help fund JWR.). |
|
Comment by clicking here.
Dick Morris Archives
include "/usr/web/jewishworldreview.com/t-ssi/jwr_squaread_300x250.php"; ?>
© 2011, Dick Morris
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Alan Douglas
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
Marybeth Hicks
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
| |