NEW YORK TIMES, November 23, 2011 — Democrats reacted ferociously on Tuesday to Mitt Romney’s first campaign commercial, which they said distorted comments by Barack Obama to make it look as if he was running away from his record on the economy.
But a Democratic reaction may have been just what Mr. Romney wanted. The ad was timed to confront President Obama on his visit to New Hampshire. And coming on the day of another primary debate, it let Republican voters know that Mr. Romney would take a combative posture toward Mr. Obama if he became their presidential nominee.
In the ad, Mr. Obama is heard declaring, “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”
Left out was the context for Mr. Obama’s comment, which he made during the 2008 presidential election — he was talking about his opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona. What Mr. Obama said was, “Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’ ”
Mr. Obama’s allies assailed the ad, accusing Mr. Romney of being “deceitful” and “dishonest.” Brad Woodhouse, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, called Mr. Romney a “serial deceiver” and said “his deceptions know no bounds.”
Mr. Romney’s top advisers were unrepentant, calling the response “hysterical” and accusing Mr. Obama’s campaign of routinely lying about Mr. Obama’s record.
“This is what happens to people who forget that there is a process by which they will be challenged, and they will be held accountable,” said Stuart Stevens, a top adviser to Mr. Romney. “They don’t get to choose what this race is about. It’s going to be Candidate Obama running against President Obama.”
Aides to Mr. Romney refused to give any ground on their use of the Obama statement, saying Mr. Obama’s campaign had first misrepresented the quote by saying it was an official position of Mr. McCain’s campaign. In fact, they note, the quote was from an unnamed “McCain strategist” and not an official statement from his campaign.
“They knew absolutely well that wasn’t a position of the McCain campaign, and they went out and said it with that mocking tone, day after day after day,” Mr. Stevens said. “We believe if he keeps talking about the economy, they will lose. They are welcome to prove us wrong.”
The result of the back and forth was to highlight an ad that Mr. Romney’s campaign spent relatively little to broadcast — just $134,000 on one New Hampshire television station. By generating controversy, Mr. Romney’s campaign managed to get a much wider distribution for the ad.
Mr. Romney’s campaign is also orchestrating a series of other events: rallies near the site of the president’s visit, wall-to-wall radio and television interviews by allies of Mr. Romney, and an open letter to Mr. Obama in the state’s three largest newspapers.
In the letter, Mr. Romney, in a polite but firm tone, directly addressed Mr. Obama as the Republican nominee might eventually do next year. “The evidence is in and it is unequivocal,” he wrote. “I will be blunt. Your policies have failed. It is bad enough that they have fallen short even by the standards your own administration set for itself. But things are much worse than that. Far from bringing the crisis to an end, your policies have actively hindered economic recovery.”
If there was any doubt that Mr. Romney’s campaign is looking beyond the primary toward a fight against Mr. Obama, even his top advisers are barely concealing that fact now.
Gail Gitcho, Mr. Romney’s communications director, said in an interview Monday night that the effort in New Hampshire was the campaign’s “most intense” yet to confront the president when he travels around the country. “Every day from now on, the American voters and the Romney campaign are going to hold the president responsible,” she said.
In a nearly hourlong interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on Monday night, Mr. Romney repeatedly attacked the president’s record, even as he virtually ignored his Republican rivals. “I want people to remember that when he was Candidate Obama, he said he was going to get this economy going,” he said . “The contrast between what he said and what he did is so stark.”
It is a message that Mr. Obama’s advisers reject, and it was largely ignored when he arrived in the state on Tuesday. Mr. Obama lashed out at Republicans in Congress for blocking the tax cut.
“If your members of Congress aren’t listening, you’ve got to send them a message,” he said. “Tell them, Don’t be a Grinch.”
The contrast between the two men offers an early glimpse of the competing messages that each will probably offer if Republicans choose Mr. Romney as their standard-bearer.
That day is months away. But as the Romney campaign wrote in the subject line of an e-mail to reporters Monday: “Game On.”
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Wednesday, November 23rd 2011 at 12:31PM
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