Bain and Switch - The Obama Campaign's Strategy of Distraction

If this was the Obama campaign’s strategy, it’s brilliant.

To win a re-election campaign, they decided they somehow needed to distract voters and the press from the story that President Obama has presided over an abysmal economy that has 8.2 percent of American workers unemployed, not counting the men and women who have given up looking for jobs.

What did they come up with?

Bain Capital.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is the real job-cutter, they want you to believe. In the midst of investing and building new companies and new jobs as part of his role at the venture capital company, there were mergers and downsizing and other horrible things that happen in the private business world that resulted in lay-offs.

So you see, if you want to be angry about people being laid-off, aim your blame at Mitt Romney. That's the way the Obama campaign wants it, because that's the only way their guy can possibly win another four years in the White House.

The very idea that we’re seeing so many stories in the press about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain as a supposed job cutter while Obama spends his days blaming other people for 8.2 percent unemployment is total b-s.

If we're supposed to buy into the notion that blame flows to the top of an organization, then where is President Obama's accountability for the 12 million Americans who are out of work? What about the millions of Americans who have spent through their 401K's in recent years just to pay for food and gas? How about all of the foreclosures, and all the small businesses that have had to take down their signs and board up their windows because they couldn't compete anymore?

Obama for America 2012 doesn't want you to think about all of that. They would much rather have you focus on just one business, Bain Capital, and its former CEO, Mitt Romney.

The problem is, the Obama campaign is blurring the line between things that are "wrong" and things that are unfortunate. They want you to believe that Mitt Romney did something "wrong" at Bain Capital because some of the companies it invested in laid people off. But, there's nothing "wrong" with that. Romney was engaged in what most of us like to refer to as "business." In the "business world," there are successes and failures. There is risk and reward. Jobs are created, and sometimes jobs are lost. That's sometimes unfortunate, but it's not "wrong."

President Obama wants people to live in a fairy tale world where there is always a happy ending and where success is guaranteed. He is uncomfortable with the ups and downs of business (probably because he's never worked at one himself). He wants everyone to win all the time. He wants everyone to make the same salary, live in the same kind of house and have access to all the same advantages in life no matter how hard they work. That's the Democratic Way.

But, it's not the American Way. It isn't the American Dream it's cracked up to be. It's divisive class warfare, pure and simple. It's the type of liberal political philosophy that has ravaged other parts of the world and sent generations of immigrants fleeing their homelands to seek a better life here -- in America, the land of opportunity.

President Obama would do good to remember that we live in a nation where people are promised the opportunity to succeed, not success itself. That's the American Way. And, there is good reason for that. Success is relative. If there is no failure, then there is no real success. If there is no failure, there is no incentive for hard work and self-starting initiative that made this country great. There is only need for one thing -- a government of entitlement programs and draconian regulations which traps its citizens in a cycle of dependency.

So, the next time you hear President Obama and his surrogates criticizing Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, why don't you look at their actual records instead. Who do you want to lead our economy for the next four years -- someone the President himself criticizes for being successful at business, or someone who's presided over an unemployed population twice the size of Massachusetts for over a thousand days?

You decide. Election Day is less than 120 days away.

Meredith Warren talks GOP politics on NECN

Meredith Warren joined NECN's Morning Show this morning to talk about presidential politics; specifically, the possibility that GOP candidate Mitt Romney will pick a woman to serve as his vice president.

Click below to watch the full video on NECN.com.

Meredith Warren on CBC's "The Current"

Congratulations to Meredith Warren for appearing live on CBC's "The Current" national radio show on Friday morning to discuss the Supreme Court's decision on health care and what it means or the GOP in the 2012 elections and going forward.

Please click below for full audio:

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2012/06/29/obamacare-decision-debate-2/#

Opportunities for the GOP?

Recent events give Republicans, particularly on the congressional level, the potential to score some serious political points over the next week on three key issues: immigration, executive privilege, and health care.

The opportunity exists to portray the Obama Administration as both imperially arrogant and completely ineffective, which would position the GOP well for advances in the November elections. However, some of ways this opportunity could play out are counter-intuitive, and there is real danger the GOP could be outmaneuvered by congressional Democrats on these issues heading into November.

Here is our analysis of the current landscape:

Immigration

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned most of a controversial Arizona statute aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in that state. The statute gave police the power to detain illegal immigrants suspected of having committed a deportable defense, and it made it more difficult for undocumented immigrants to look for work.

The Arizona statute has been a rallying point for people (including many in the GOP base) who claim we need tougher illegal immigration laws. With most of the statute nullified, House Republicans should act quickly to propose reforms on a national level that would crack down on illegal immigration and facilitate the path to citizenship for those who come to this country legally. If the GOP acts first, House Republicans can blame Senate Democrats all the way to November for failing to address the issue.

But, there's more. The Supreme Court's ruling is a double-whammy to those concerned about illegal immigration. It comes just one week after President Obama announced that his administration will grant work permits to about 800,000 undocumented students instead of deporting them (for the sake of comparison, this figure is roughly the same size as the entire population of San Francisco).

The GOP needs to tie the President's announcement and the Arizona statute together to demonstrate that there has been a profound lack of lack of leadership and enforcement by President Obama on the immigration issue, going so far as to unilaterally order his administration to grant amnesty to those who are in the country illegally. If nothing else, this is a policy decision that should be made by Congress, not by an imperial president. The GOP needs to use make the President look arrogant and selfish, bent on pushing his ultra-liberal agenda through Congress at any cost – and willing to go right around Congress if he fails.

Executive Privilege

This notion of an imperial presidency is one that carries forward to the next issue, due to come up later this week – contempt proceedings against Attorney General Eric Holder.

Last week, the House Committee on Regulatory Oversight voted to recommend that Congress hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for his failure to produce documents related to the "Fast and Furious" program. And, most important for political purposes, the decision came just hours after the White House announced its assertion of "executive privilege" on the issue.

In order to successfully prosecute contempt charges, Republicans will be forced to concentrate on the details of the charges themselves and the underlying evidence. But if they focus too much on those factors, they risk getting caught up in the weeds. And, they will be doing so in an environment where the American public generally tends to hold a greater sense of disdain for Congress than for the President.

Democrats are likely to retreat to two strategic arguments. First, they will argue (as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has already started to argue) that Congress is too focused on the minutiae of the Fast and Furious investigation while it is ignoring more important issues like unemployment and the economy. These arguments are simple for the public to understand and they have public appeal. Second, Democrats will argue that this fixation on Fast and Furious stems from a Republican Congress fixated on election year politics to remove the President from office. And, then there is the possibility that the White House could waive portions of the privilege just prior to the contempt proceedings in a token gesture aimed at making the issue appear to be much ado about nothing.

In order to reclaim the issue, Republicans will need to set the agenda straight.

First, the GOP needs to focus on the President's assertion of executive privilege and portray it as an unconstitutional attempt to cover up evidence of a failed program. The use of executive privilege elevates the failures of Fast and Furious right up to the White House itself. (Sorry, President Obama, but as they always say, if you break it, you buy it.) The issue needs to be the use of privilege, not the program itself.

Second, the GOP needs to keep the focus on other issues, including Democrats' unwillingness to advance a budget through Congress for several years and the skyrocketing national debt under President Obama. They need to make the White House look like the ones who have impeded Congress' attempts to fix things, not the other way around. Notwithstanding all of these subjects, the economy remains the number one issue in this election and the Republicans' best chance of winning the White House in 2012.

Health Care

The third big issue is health care.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court is expected to release its opinion on the constitutionality of the health care reform bill now dubbed "Obamacare," including the bill's so-called individual mandate provision.

On its face, a rejection of the statute by the Supreme Court would appear to be a major victory to Republicans who have opposed the reform bill all along and called for its repeal.

However, we think it would actually be most advantageous to the GOP if Obamacare is upheld by the Supreme Court this week. Democrats would argue such a ruling would validate the President's advocacy for health care reform in the face of GOP opposition. However, it would also serve as a rallying point for a strong coalition of Americans, including many in the GOP base, to go to the polls in November and elect Republicans to Congress so they can repeal the law legislatively. (To see an example of how the issue can motivate the base and favor a GOP candidate, look no further than the special election that sent Scott Brown to the Senate from Massachusetts in 2010.)

If, instead, the Supreme Court does strike down Obamacare, the GOP will claim victory and seize on an apparent repudiation of the President and his politics. But, such a ruling would leave the GOP with two problems. First, Democrats across the country will use the issue as a reason to re-elect President Obama and to regain control of the House so they can protect liberal policies. And, with the President's approval ratings low and his list of successes scant, the last thing the GOP wants right now is a newly-energized Democratic base in November. Two, the rejection of Obamacare would (rightfully) shift attention back to the GOP for answers to the question of how health care ought to be reformed. At least right now, the GOP seems to have few answers to this important question.

We're fascinated to see how all of this is going to play out over the next week to ten days. Stay tuned for more updates – summer politics are finally heating up!