The past few weeks have been anything but positive for the Obama Campaign. Every news cycle brought something that put the campaign on the defensive: Biden outing the President on gay marriage, a rise in the unemployment numbers, weak job growth, national security leaks, massacres in Syria, the financial crisis in Europe, the beat down in Wisconsin, Bill Clinton’s ruminations and the President’s own “the private sector is doing fine” gaffe. It seemed that anything that could go wrong did.
As the polls reported an ever tightening race between the two candidates, pundits questioned the wisdom of the Obama Campaign’s strategy to go negative on Romney’s past as opposed to offering a positive plan for the future. When pressed, senior Obama aids made it clear that they would stay the course: “We know what resonates with the American people better than you.” touted one aid.
Maybe they do. Or maybe it’s the arrogance of fools. One thing is certain…right now it ain’t workin’.
This promises to be the most negative campaign in our history. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling assures that it will also be the most expensive. $3.2 billion will be spent on campaign ads this year; most of them of the negative variety. In 2008 there were 10,000+ campaign ads run in the presidential election; over 80% of them negative attack ads. Already this year there have been over 120,000+ campaign ads run; over 88% of them negative attack ads.
The funding of these ads and the grassroots ground game that backs them up will lean heavily toward the Republican side of the ledger. For the first time in our history a sitting president will be outspent by his opponent. The Romney Campaign raised $77 million in the month of May; compared to $60 million for Obama. The Koch Brothers have said that they will spend $400 million to defeat Obama. Put into perspective, the McCain Campaign spent a total of $300 million in 2008. The Obama Campaign knew that they would be outspent by the well healed conservative Super Pacs. They just didn’t think the onslaught would come this quickly. And it’s only May.
There is no doubt that the President’s re-election prospects hinge on events over which he has little or no control. There is very little that the President can do about the US economy and nothing he can do about economic conditions in Europe. Add a terrorist attack on US soil to a weak economy and you have all the makings for a change in the White House. He may not be able to single handedly fix the economy. And even as the most powerful person in the world, he cannot bring about world peace with the snap of his fingers. But there is one thing he can do…he can change the narrative.
The tsunami of negativity that is going to wash over the electorate in the next five months cannot be understated. The only way that the President’s voice will be heard above the negative clamor will be if he embraces a positive message of hope delivered with a clear path for the future. The only way to turn around the negativity of these past few weeks is to outline what his past decisions have produced for the country and to explain specifically how he has a plan to return the country to prosperity.
We’ve written about this before; and it deserves repeating. Demonizing Romney won’t work. That speech will just get lost in all the other negative white noise funded by the pro-Romney Super Pacs. Positive and constructive is the way to go…
…and keep a tight rein on Biden and Clinton.
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