Team Romney is grasping at straws.......

[Yank2133]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/how-the-romney-campaign-decided-to-take-the-gloves

Seriously?

This stuff was brought up in 2008 when Obama wasn't very well known and it didn't work. How is it going to work now that he has been on the job for four years?

[krazen1211]

The electorate is different and not heavily favoring the Democrats.

[Yank2133]

The electorate is different and not heavily favoring the Democrats.

You honestly think people are going to care about BO's past now after he has been president for four years?

It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

This just reeks of desperation.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

The only thing about this that could have some real impact is Fast and Furious, which, granted, is definitely A Bad Thing. The last Republican President also had a youthful cocaine habit. The maenadic frenzy over the fact that Obama is from Chicago has been played out for years now.

[krazen1211]

The electorate is different and not heavily favoring the Democrats.

You honestly think people are going to care about BO's past now after he has been president for four years?

It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

This just reeks of desperation.

Hot Rod Blago sold his seat after the 2008 election. One wonders how you think it would have been brought up beforehand. And fast and the furious is more recent.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

The electorate is different and not heavily favoring the Democrats.

You honestly think people are going to care about BO's past now after he has been president for four years?

It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

This just reeks of desperation.

Hot Rod Blago sold his seat after the 2008 election. One wonders how you think it would have been brought up beforehand. And fast and the furious is more recent.

Blago isn't going to be any more damaging than Jeremiah Wright was. Obama was much more closely associated with Wright. Blago also didn't end up giving the seat to the person the Romney surrogates are going to claim (already claiming?) Obama tried to get him to, so even if the accusations of impropriety on the President's part have merit he does have a defense against them.

[Yank2133]

The electorate is different and not heavily favoring the Democrats.

You honestly think people are going to care about BO's past now after he has been president for four years?

It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

This just reeks of desperation.

Hot Rod Blago sold his seat after the 2008 election. One wonders how you think it would have been brought up beforehand. And fast and the furious is more recent.

Blago had nothing do with Obama and had no effect on his approval ratings, and Fast & Furious has been going on for months and has had no effect on the President's approval ratings.

The GOP can go down this route, and they will lose.....badly.

[DrScholl]

Nobody that doesn't already care about these things will pay any attention of this and those who already were worried about these things were already voting for Romney anyway.

[Lincoln Republican]

Grasping at straws your words, your spin, not the articles words.

These counter attacks will negatively impact Obama.  

As America has learned from Nixon, dishonesty in a President is devastating to the nation.

And let's face it, Obama is a dishonest President, and he is surrounded by a cabal of Mitchells, Haldemans and Ehrlichmans as his chief advisors.  

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Grasping at straws your words, your spin, not the articles words.

These counter attacks will negatively impact Obama.  

As America has learned from Nixon, dishonesty in a President is devastating to the nation.

And let's face it, Obama is a dishonest President, and he is surrounded by a cabal of Mitchells, Haldemans and Ehrlichmans as his chief advisors.  

Of course Obama is dishonest, but he's pretty clearly the least dishonest American President since Carter.

[Maxwell]

Rod Blago! :facepalm:

[muon2]

Rod Blago! :facepalm:

It's the IL version of Godwin's law.

[Ebowed]

This destroys any flack Obama gets for 'going negative.'  I approve.

[Lief 🗽]

Hopefully the Dems (unofficially) respond by going after Romney's Mormonism. If Barry's cocaine use is fair game, surely Romney's membership in a cult is as well.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Hopefully they counteract Romney's comments about Obama's illegal habit with attacks on Romney's religion!

Glad to see this is what politics have come to these days.

To be clear though, I'm not a fan of Romney doing this. Namely because I think cheap attacks backfire, as we'd see with Obama's Bain attacks if Romney actually let them play out.

[President von Cat]

I don't really see the upside for attacking Obama for past drug use or ties to discredited Chicago politicians. McCain did bring that stuff up in 2008; it was largely dismissed then and there's no reason to believe that people will care now. Obama is a known quantity at this point: people know about Jeremiah Wright, they know about Ayers, they knew Obama "inhaled", etc. He's been president for nearly four years, and hasn't proved to be a radical, a rampant drug user, etc. These attacks aren't going to do anything, except perhaps drive up Mitt's unfavorables.

The other strategic issue for the Romney campaign is that by going this route, they are going to take their eyes off the economy ball. I know some pundits have become exasperated with the singular focus on the economy, but its really the only issue Romney can campaign on. Sacrificing economic talking points to focus on things we know already about Obama's past seems like a poor trade to me.

In other words, it just seems like they are being baited into switching the conversation away from their only strength. I can't help but feel that the Obama campaign would love, LOVE for Romney to respond in this manner.

Romney should instead be defending his time at Bain and telling the American public why what he did there was good for American workers and the economy. Frankly, if he can't or won't defend Bain, how does he expect his surrogates to do it?

[Whacker77]

The electorate is different and not heavily favoring the Democrats.

You honestly think people are going to care about BO's past now after he has been president for four years?

It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

This just reeks of desperation.

McCain never made some of the more unpleasant parts of Obama's past an issue.  I don't see the upside of calling Obama a coke user, but if Romney's campaign did reek of desperation, why is the race essentially tied to +1 for Obama?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Romney should be out there giving a three point defense of why his experience at Bain was good.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Romney should be out there giving a three point defense of why his experience at Bain was good.

Agreed.

Granted, I (probably unlike you) am far from sure that Romney can do this, but I definitely think he should, from his perspective, if he wants to be able to be elected.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I think he'd be able to do it if he had better advisors. And it looks like the Romney team has recalibrated slightly, so who knows.

[Penelope]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I have never seen a Mitt Romney speech that did not sound like a greatest hits compilation.

[krazen1211]

Romney should be out there giving a three point defense of why his experience at Bain was good.

Agreed.

Granted, I (probably unlike you) am far from sure that Romney can do this, but I definitely think he should, from his perspective, if he wants to be able to be elected.

Domino's Pizza.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Or Staples.

But I saw a Staples in Portugal the other day, so maybe that would be spun as outsourcing.