Whenever I catch Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod on CNN (far more often than I catch prominent Republican consultants on that “news” network), I find him little more than a bland reciter of the latest Beltway talking points. He never seems to offer any wise observations of or profound insights into the current state of political play.
Perhaps, because unlike Karl Rove or Donna Brazile (where’d she go anyway? I miss her insights) when they appear on air to offer political commentary, he’s working for an active campaign and has so chosen to keep his counsel.
All that said, Axelrod did run a pretty impressive presidential campaign in 2008, but then his candidate was pretty much a blank slate — and the mainstream media amazingly uninterested in Barack Obama’s record. He could thus get away with promising vast new federal programs to appease his party’s liberal base while assuring independent voters he supported a “net spending cut.”
As 2012 approaches, with his candidate no longer a blank slate, with Americans now familiar with Obama’s record in office, will Axelrod be able to craft a winning campaign?
Via Jim Geraghty, I found Ace’s prediction of Obama’s strategy::
Remain as undefined as possible, even though this makes not a lick of sense, given that he finally has a record and a meager set of accomplishments (and a rather more lengthy accounting of failures). Make the GOP opponent, whoever that might turn out to be, the defined one. Define him, and, as Alisky said, freeze him, polarize him. Continue running as the candidate of Hope and Change, despite the fact that after four years, you’d think he’d be able to run as the candidate of Accomplishment and Deed.
For the record, both bloggers were writing about Romney’s strategy and both posts merit your attention, but Ace does consider Obama’s 2008 campaign (when the media let him get away with appearing “as both the most liberal candidate in the race (naturally), and, oddly enough, as the mostconservative candidate in the race”) and the upcoming one where, Ace believes, the Democrat “plans to demagogue the Republicans”.
Not a very clever (or original) strategy. And one dependent on a compliant media. With fewer people dependent on the mainstream media for their news than ever before and with most Americans aware of Obama’s record in office, I remain skeptical that this strategy could work.
And with such a campaign, Barack Obama can no longer run as the man who, in 2008, promised to end politics as we know it. His reelection effort will not be an upbeat affair which plays to our hopes, but a scorched earth strategy which plays to our fears.
*(successful)
**(well-known)
President Obama is going to have a public meltdown between now & 2012; everything is set to explode with the Democrats building their tinderbox beginning with ObamaCare & Porkulus. Obama cannot run as a blank slate anymore, although he yearns to return to the cult of personality he once was. He has a visible record of mass destruction which will result in the implosion of America. However, America is too big for Obama–even his fragile inflamed narcissism with crack from the pressure. In other words, to answer more directly, no, Axelrod is a one-trick pony lick his boss, President Obama. The writing is on the wall.
Sorta off topic: Did you see one of the Gaza terrorist supply ships is called “Hope & Change“. May that one be a colossal failure as Obama’s. ‘twould be an interesting irony if the ship capsized and sank.
2012 is still a long way but it’s for the republicans to lose. If the republicans were clever enough to get democrats to expose some of their money hungry plans for a second term like grabbing everyone’s 401k, 401b it should be enough to seal the deal.
Oh, that’s nothing. The other one is called, “The Audacity of Hope.”
I sh*t you not.
Axelrod put the “pain” in “campaign.”
Sebastian Shaw: A commenter named David Thomson at Pajamas Media has been making a similar claim for years about Obama’s narcissism making him crack and have a meltdown of some sort that makes him unable to complete his term. Although there are those that say the thought of a President Biden terrifies them, I find the idea preferable to that of a President Obama. Whatever his campaign challenges, precluding a public meltdown of some sort, Obama still is an incumbent with a good possibility of re-election. A President Biden, on the other hand? Well, the phrase “that dog don’t hunt” comes to mind.
#4 Crud. That’s the one I meant. I was going from memory and I knew it was one of those meaningless campaign slogans.
Dottie Laird,
“5.Axelrod put the “pain” in “campaign.””
Couldn’t have said it better, Dottie. LOL
The Obama campaign is going to built around one dubious claim, “Obama killed OBL”….which is to not respect or acknowledge the work of Bush-43’s admin, nor the dedication of SOCOM and the Navy Seals. Killing OBL was an obvious imperative-duty of any sitting post-911 POTUS when presented with the opportunity…not a singular achievement worthy of extraordinary praise.
Otherwise, what popular accomplishment has Pres. Obama to fall back on?
Obama can keep repeating he killed Bin Laden, but his audience will keep shrinking with every teleprompter speech since Obama’s policies also killed jobs thanks to ObamaCare, Porkulus, & the Dodd-Frank Bank law just to name a few things. Obama also gave us inflation with Porkulus & printing money like there’s no tomorrow. Obama has no visible record of accomplishments; therefore, all he is left with is hackneyed demagoguery & class warfare. He’s desperate.
On The Job Training for POTUS hasn’t worked out very well for Obama or his supporters after two and a half years. The attempt to fill the Chair of the President of the United States with a former Community Organizer, University Instructor, etc. can now be deemed a failure. Even Rahm has jumped ship and gone back to Illinois…
Turbo Tax Timmy is ready to leave the sinking USS Obama as soon as he’s ready; he’s giving conflicting messages thus far.