2012 Tuesday: What will we hear from Charlotte?
Last week in Tampa, the Republicans made significant progress toward their main objectives: revealing more of the personal side of Mitt Romney, and clearly communicating their pitch to voters in this election.
This week in Charlotte, it’s the Democrats’ turn. What will President Obama and his party try to accomplish? Will they continue to play defense against the GOP or try to seize the initiative?
Going into today’s opening events, it would appear it’s the former, with Democrats trying to neutralize the Republican message. Here’s part of today’s curtain-raiser from the Wall Street Journal:
The Democratic Party’s goals for the three-day gathering include widening its advantages among female and Hispanic voters while limiting Mr. Obama’s losses among white, working-class ones. At the same time, its overarching ambition is to rebut Mr. Obama’s opponent, Mitt Romney, who used last week’s Republican National Convention to try to pry away the president’s 2008 voters by casting him as a nice guy who isn’t up to the challenge. …
A senior Obama campaign official said the president may offer one or two new policy proposals in his speech Thursday, when he accepts the nomination for re-election, but that he would spend more time arguing that his existing ideas on health care, education and deficit-reduction amount to “a clear, concrete and achievable plan” for a second term.
The New York Times sounds a similar note, observing that the thrill of 2008 is gone and that Democrats’ “unity at this point is defined less by faith in Mr. Obama or a robust vision for what the party should stand for than by the prospect that Republicans could control the White House and Congress next year and enact a conservative agenda that would unravel much of what Democrats have stood for since Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.”
So it’s defense, defense, defense.
In football, they say defense wins championships. Will that work in this year’s election?
I have my doubts. For one, pitching themselves and Obama as a suitable status quo against a radical Republican Party led by Romney and Paul Ryan would seem to hinge on the word “suitable.” And voters have their own doubts about that: In a new poll for The Hill, voters said the nation is worse, not better, off than four years ago by a 54-32 margin, and that Obama does not deserve re-election by a 54-40 count.
Even the Obama camp is having a hard time answering the “better off” question, made famous in 1980 when Ronald Reagan posed that question to voters after four years of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley answered in the negative on “Face the Nation” Sunday — though he did gamely try to blame the Republicans — before backtracking on Monday.
Obama himself said yesterday he deserved a grade of “incomplete” for his handling of the economy, the same grade he gave himself last October and in August 2010. Will voters be as forgiving?
After the GOP spent a week being mostly upbeat in Tampa, I think it will be a problem for Obama if he and the Democrats can’t come up with a positive message in Charlotte.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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475 comments Add your comment
mike
September 4th, 2012
8:08 pm
Once Barack Obama is re-elected in 2012, then Hillary Clinton will be elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. What that means in real terms is that the first chance that the Republicans have of regaining the White House will be 2024. Twelve years from now.
getalife
September 4th, 2012
8:11 pm
That video was great and showed Kennedy beating romney.
How did Kennedy crush romney?
Great line, look it up.
Romney Candidate of the Few by the Few for the Few
September 4th, 2012
8:11 pm
@ – @@
September 4th, 2012
8:05 pm
Few Few & Few:
They do not share our values or ideology so why would we listen to them?
We’re talking about the media here. Equal time and all that crap.
Black conservatives are unique individuals. Men and women outstanding in THEIR field, not the dems’ field.
*************************************************
“Ann Coulter saying “our [conservative] blacks are so much better than their blacks.”
CONS can have THEIR BLACKS we don’t want them.
md
September 4th, 2012
8:12 pm
Mike…..history dictates 4 or 8 and once in a while 12………which means the big group in the middle has a tendency to quit liking both parties after awhile. 4 and 8 are more the norm……and by the way, exactly how many lotteries have you already won??
getalife
September 4th, 2012
8:17 pm
” exactly how many lotteries have you already won??”
It is about competent people making videos like the one I just watched.
Then campaign organization to get people to vote.
It is not the lottery silly.
Romney Candidate of the Few by the Few for the Few
September 4th, 2012
8:18 pm
In August, 2,286 delegates and 2,125 alternate delegates attended
the Republican convention…
How many went to the strip clubs in tampa?
Sorry, I digress
Tonight, Over 6,000 delegates are attending the Democratic convention.
td
September 4th, 2012
8:19 pm
“The Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To” (September 4, 2012).”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gLa9Te8Blw
Now all you Dems out there that says your party is not socialist please explain this one? I to not belong to the government they belong to me and every other citizen of this country.
finn mccool
September 4th, 2012
8:19 pm
THE GUY RAN 1 MARATHON
The grandma marathon.
Why ….WHY would he lie about that?\
WHY
THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF A LIER!
finn mccool
September 4th, 2012
8:20 pm
So sad
Your Ryan lies out loud!
getalife
September 4th, 2012
8:24 pm
ruin lies about everything.
gm
September 4th, 2012
8:25 pm
@@
Who care about Davis? , had whites voting for him as Gov in Ala he would still been a Dem, he was in denial of what the south represent”””’
ld
September 4th, 2012
8:29 pm
This blog and comments are not unlike the Sunday AM talking head shows — you know the script before it’s written.
@@
September 4th, 2012
8:35 pm
gm:
Four terms with 90% of the vote in Alabama’s 7th District?
Like me, he’s not into the dems pigeonholing.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/4/artur-davis-5-questions-with-decker/
Hillbilly D
September 4th, 2012
8:40 pm
Id @ 8:29
That’s about the size of it.
Fred ™
September 4th, 2012
8:41 pm
Kyle Wingfield
September 4th, 2012
12:13 pm
Comments will be going out of moderation for the afternoon, but they may go back if I haven’t been able to sort through all the complaints I received while I was in Tampa.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LOL You get a lot of complaints because these Baptist Republicans over here like to dish out but they lack the stones to take back lol. The same ones complain like little girls over to Jay’s. They have mostly either left or learned to man up over there. You’ll have to take them off the nipple some day Kyle. Hell, they are mostly over 50, tell them to man up, or in the case of the two loud mouthed women, GROW UP. It’s not that difficult.
@@
September 4th, 2012
8:47 pm
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. fired back at Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Tuesday after she reportedly claimed the diplomat called Republicans’ policies “dangerous” to Israel — comments the DNC chief says were “misrepresented.”–FOX
Well, as Anderson Cooper can attest, lies don’t matter to Debbie.
td
September 4th, 2012
8:47 pm
Washington Post-ABC News poll unskewed would show large Mitt Romney lead
“The poll shows a “deadlocked” race with Mitt Romney leading by one point, 47 percent to 46 percent, over President Obama, but unskewed the data would show Romney leading by almost double digits. Released yesterday, the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll of 1000 registered voters released today shows Mitt Romney leading President Obama 47 percent to 46 percent. However, the poll over-sampled Democrat voters by 10 percent, by sampling 31 percent Democrats and just 22 percent Republicans.”
http://www.examiner.com/article/washington-post-abc-news-poll-unskewed-would-show-large-mitt-romney-lead
@@
September 4th, 2012
8:49 pm
…two loud mouthed women…
And who would those two loud mouthed women be, Fred?
Romney Candidate of the Few by the Few for the Few
September 4th, 2012
8:50 pm
Our choice is a man who has ALWAYS chosen US.
Barack Obama!
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 4th, 2012
8:51 pm
gm
The GOP put minorities on stage as they held significant positions in the party. The Dims keep them in the audience.
__________
I think the time has long passed for the right wingers on this blog to admit to themselves that Barack Obama is going to win in November. That way, it won’t be so painful in January.
Someone needs to speak with Michael Moore, he was telling folks to practice saying President Romney this last week. I don’t think he is a right winger.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 4th, 2012
8:56 pm
td
Most of the polls are using (deliberately IMO) 2008 turnout data as a base. We all know that the great Mistake is having a hard time with the enthusiasm problem, so the turnout will probably be more like 2010. Dems survive by self deluding themselves and remaining willfully uninformed, which may cause them some shock in Nov.
td
September 4th, 2012
9:04 pm
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer’s ineptocracy
September 4th, 2012
8:56 pm
You are absolutely correct. I have looked at every poll the past month or so and the least Dem over representation has been 4% and most are in the 6 to 9%. This one is even more skewed then normal. I think they really want to not show the Romney bounce and make the election looked tied after the DNC convention.
Romney Candidate of the Few by the Few for the Few
September 4th, 2012
9:07 pm
A POWERFUL moment when a mother talked about her daughter
needed heart surgery.
In the past there was a cap on medical benefits but with OBAMACARE
there is NO cap.
Shame on Romney for wanting to REPEAL Obamacare.
@@
September 4th, 2012
9:10 pm
Poor Lanny Davis. He’s struggling to find something positive to say about Obama’s economy, the DNC’s new platform, and the exclusion of Jerusalem and God from that platform.
I think he’s used the word “stupid” three separate times now.
It’s so unlike Lanny.
Dusty
September 4th, 2012
9:10 pm
@@.
Did Fred ever answer your question as to whom he was referring to as “loud mouth women”?
Couldn’t be us because neither one of us is a Baptist.
The Braves game is a little slow tonight. So I am wandering off a bit.
By the way, did you see where Spain was cutting free healthcare for undocumented immigrants? They say it will save $1.9 billion. . They have 25% unemployment with massive financial problems.
It’s a wonder anybody has much of anything…
@@
September 4th, 2012
9:12 pm
Our choice is a man who has ALWAYS chosen US.
The frozen chosen.
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:13 pm
td
Along with your Dick Morris posts, your polling conspiracies are great.
Yours as well Rafe. I loved that bs you posted earlier today about Michelle Obama losing her law license. Boy it didn’t take much to dupe you.
Get you two together, you will be coming up with a “Twilight Zone” for right wing conspiracy fools, I mean folks. . Alex Jones, World Net Daily are already in the market, but I am sure there is room for you two.
Keep them coming and thanks for the laughs.
ODD OWL
September 4th, 2012
9:14 pm
I came into Kyle’s blog site to bash the Romney/Ryan Republicans and support and heap praise upon the Obama/Biden Democrats… But i see that you Guys have done a bang up job on both fronts… So never mind…
md
September 4th, 2012
9:16 pm
“I think they really want to not show the Romney bounce and make the election looked tied after the DNC convention.”
And if that’s the case, may very well play against them……the side that’s down may turn out in bigger numbers knowing it has to make up the difference while the other side stays home thinking they have it in the bag…….a bit like 2010.
Romney Candidate of the Few by the Few for the Few
September 4th, 2012
9:16 pm
@td
September 4th, 2012
9:04 pm
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer’s ineptocracy
September 4th, 2012
8:56 pm
You are absolutely correct. I have looked at every poll the past month or so and the least Dem over representation has been 4% and most are in the 6 to 9%. This one is even more skewed then normal. I think they really want to not show the Romney bounce and make the election looked tied after the DNC convention.
********************************************************
According to a new CNN Poll:
National poll released Today, just before the start of the Democratic convention, the GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney appears to have received a one-point convention bounce.
@@
September 4th, 2012
9:18 pm
Dusty:
Did Fred ever answer your question
No! Fred’s an oddball.
I’ve been accused of being testosterone laden but never a loud mouth.
You?
td
September 4th, 2012
9:18 pm
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:13 pm
Since you are so freaking brilliant can you explain the 11% over representation in the latest ABC poll? Why has all the polls up to this point over represented the Democratic voters by between 4 to 9%?
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:18 pm
Oh No, they took god out of the platform
What will happen?
Romney Candidate of the Few by the Few for the Few
September 4th, 2012
9:20 pm
@@@
September 4th, 2012
9:12 pm
Our choice is a man who has ALWAYS chosen US.
The frozen chosen.
*****************************************************************************
Only the rich CONS ARE CHOSEN by Mitt Romney.
If you ain’t rich IT IS YOUR FAULT.
heeheeheeheehee
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:21 pm
td
Just keep ole Dick “McCain will walk away with this election” Morris close to your heart and mind. He will not steer you wrong……….He promises
You scour the net to Keep Hope Alive.
It is so effn funny……..
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:22 pm
td
Where is your independent study that claims these major pollsters are all on the take for the left?
That is the case, right?
bwhahahahahaha
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:23 pm
Romney
It is probably more like 10 or 12 pts. td will be glad to dissect the polls to show you the “truth”
@@
September 4th, 2012
9:24 pm
If you ain’t rich IT IS YOUR FAULT.
True.
Romney Candidate of the Few by the Few for the Few
September 4th, 2012
9:24 pm
Obamacare is going to put Obama OVER THE TOP.
Every mother or father who has a child with a SERIOUS medical condition
will thank Obama for Obamacare.
THERE IS NO CAP ON BENEFITS.
Thank you Jehovah for Obamacare.
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:24 pm
Will check back tomorrow for td and Rafe’s latest and greatest conspiracies.
Peace
Romney Candidate of the Few by the Few for the Few
September 4th, 2012
9:28 pm
@They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:23 pm
Romney
It is probably more like 10 or 12 pts. td will be glad to dissect the polls to show you the “truth”
*************************************************************
TD will dissect the polls?
Who appointed him resident genius?
TD…..The Dunce?
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:31 pm
Romney
As the election draws near you will see. td is on it.
Trust me on this. Just don’t trust his information or sources.
td
September 4th, 2012
9:42 pm
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
9:31 pm
You never did explain why the polls are so skewed to the Dems? What is the answer? Is there more Dems then Republicans in a right of center nation? I saw one poll that had the dems over represented in Georgia. Was that a legitimate poll?
Give us some of your wisdom.
JDW
September 4th, 2012
9:46 pm
Maybe Rohm ought to be in charge of messaging…change you can believe in…change that we fought for…change that was delivered…wow the truth will do.
Dusty
September 4th, 2012
9:54 pm
@@ 9:18
I don’t know but maybe we’ll be promoted to “loud mouth” later.
I see that Few Few is thanking Jehovah for ObamaCare. Glad to see that. That is the only possibility for getting the cost covered.. Taxpayers certainly can’t cover uncapped and uncontrolled healthcare. .
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 4th, 2012
9:56 pm
They both suck
So does your research!
The website of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois ((https://www.iardc.org/ldetail.asp?id=847688734)) says that Michelle Obama was admitted to the Illinois State Bar Association on May 12, 1989, but she is no longer authorized to practice law because she voluntarily surrendered (“voluntarily inactive”) her license on some unspecified date for unspecified reason(s).
For his part, Barack Hussein Obama was admitted to the Illinois State Bar Association on December 17, 1991. He too is no longer authorized to practice law because he had “voluntarily retired” on an unspecified date for unspecified reason(s).
__________________
JDW
September 4th, 2012
9:58 pm
@dusty…”Taxpayers certainly can’t cover uncapped and uncontrolled healthcare”
No doubt, that’s why we have Obamacare, to keep us from drowning under the highest healthcare costs in the world. Did you notice rebate checks went out this year…cost control…get on board.
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
10:00 pm
Rafe
They both VOLUNTARILY opted not to retain there licensee
So why cry about it as you were this morning?
As I said, keep up the conspiracies.
They are funny, like you
They BOTH suck
September 4th, 2012
10:01 pm
Heck for all anyone knows, Jehohva wanted Obamacare covered
They say he works in mysterious ways………….
Romney Candidate of the Few by the Few for the Few
September 4th, 2012
10:06 pm
President Obama is MOVING the country FORWARD not BACK.
Swiss bank accounts never created a job.
President Obama is MOVING the country FORWARD not BACK.
Moving the country forward from the middle UP.
More opportunity for more americans.