NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Proclaimed a magnificent organization in the last election, it now appears that the 2008 Obama campaign may have been overrated.
This election is going to prove far more difficult than those President Obama has run in previously. Except for the 2008 primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, President Obama has only once before had a tough opponent.
This was in a 2000 Chicago bid to replace incumbent congressman Bobby Rush, an election Obama lost decisively. His wins in Illinois, first for the state senate and then for the US Senate, were accomplished through legal tricks that got his opponents disqualified or shamed out of the race through somehow getting ballot petitions found to be false and sealed divorce records containing unsavory information unsealed.
In the 2008 primary, the Democrats deciding between Senators Obama and Clinton were essentially ideologically like-minded, so his mission was to get them to recognize him as the more appealing candidate for the general election. And, once selected by his party, the disarray and incoherence of the McCain campaign was an easy target. At approximately this time in 2008, Obama was ahead of McCain in the polls by around 4 points. He won in November by 7 points.
Right now in 2012, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are neck and neck in the polls (and ahead in some) against an incumbent president. The Romney/Ryan team is disciplined. It’s a fund raising powerhouse. It represents a clear choice between the Obama/Democrat version and their vision of America. Moreover, they are not allowing Team Obama to run rough shod over them or failing to address lies or charges of their lying.
Unlike Senator McCain in 2008, they are not afraid to take the gloves off. Plus, Romney’s successful business background as a turnaround expert forecasts his understanding and ability to turn our economy around and get us on track to a better future, the electorate’s chief concern.
The Obama Team’s costly and cheesy advertising effort to demonize Romney’s success as a businessman in a capitalist nation fell flat. The youthful, articulate Representative Paul Ryan brings to the table more understanding of the federal budget, the current economic mess and workings of Washington, D.C. than anyone Gov. Romney could have chosen as his running mate.
The comparison between Ryan and Vice-president Joe Biden could not be starker. Given the squeaky-clean personal lives of both Romney and Ryan, along with what is, thus far, a fundraising advantage, resorting to the old Chicago dirty legal tricks strategy doesn’t hold much promise. The campaign is having to run a real campaign.
The DNC freak show was no help.
Case in point: the floor vote to reinsert the references to God and Jerusalem into the Party platform were loudly booed. The convention chairman somehow divined a two-thirds favorable vote out of screamed “Nos.” The Convention seemed obsessed with women’s sexual parts.
The president’s acceptance speech was lackluster and unfocused.
A week later, Sept. 11 to be exact, came the violence in Libya that resulted in the death of our US ambassador and three other Americans. For two weeks the president, the secretary of state and myriad other administration and campaign workers spun like tops and lied their fannies off, trying to convince the American people that a video trailer posted on YouTube that no one had ever seen caused the fracas.
This has been proven by wires, memos and e-mails to be absolutely false, and this administration has the blood of murdered Americans on its hands.
Then came the Oct. 4 debate with Mr. Romney. Despite all the silly excuses being made for the president’s surprisingly poor performance against the prepared, energetic and assertive Romney, no one could with a straight face claim it was anything, but a surprisingly poor performance.
President Obama is in the election of his life. He’s got a sorry record to run on, a worse economy than when he took over with a mandate to repair it and an opposing team that is formidable. The American people have a clear choice to make. We’ll know their choice on Nov. 6.