Wolf Howling: welfare reform

Friday, December 2, 2011

Targeting Newt

Romney's top achievement in office - Romneycare, which he really, really doesn't want to talk about anymore.

Newt's top achievement's in office - The Contract With America, welfare reform, a balanced budget, and taking the House for Republicans for the first time in decades,

True, Newt has a lot of baggage - much more than I intend to address with this post. But do remember in assessing that baggage, much of it comes from a left wing MSM that, at the time of his Speakership, wholly ruled the information that Americans read in their papers and heard over the air waves. There was no such thing as the alternative media in those days. And to the left of that era, Newt, who led a Republican conservative tide, was evil incarnate.

And today, Newt is the left's biggest problem. The thought of Gingrich debating the Teleprompter In Chief has got to be giving the left nightmares. Obama, who now has a record, will be raising up straw men and putting them on fire left and right. Gingrich will be talking facts, policy, and history. And do remember how flustered Obama gets when he is truly challenged. This promises to get incredibly ugly for the left. Which is why I just can't get enough of listening to the left talk about how much they welcome Newt as the Republican nominee. They are either wholly out of touch with reality or . . . or . . . or . . . they are being less than honest in their commentary. But lord knows, scratch a left wing paper today and you'll find someone on the left, animated apparently by the spirit of bipartisanship, advising conservatives that Newt is unelectable..

On the other side of the coin, Romney's team and his backers have got out the long knives for Gingrich. Romney tried to coast to the nomination, and now is scrambling to try and stop the Newtmentum that has Romney at 20% back in the polls. Moreover, the electability argument that was at the heart of Mitt's campaign is looking very thin indeed as Gingrich's poll numbers now put him in a statistical dead heat with Obama.

At any rate, Newt now has a big target on his back from both the left and the Romneyites. I expect both to pull out all of the stops. We will see if they do so with any intellectual honesty. This should get even more interesting over the next few weeks.. .

Update: Larwyn's Links

The Election's Gettysburg Moment

Dick Morris and Eileen McGaan think that the Presidential race is at a critical juncture - in essence, at its Gettysburgh moment where the outcome of the immediate battle may well decide the outcome of the war. Obama has run his first national campaign ad in all the swing states, attempting to rewrite his past on the issue of welfare reform. Morris believes that whether McCain responds effectively will mortally wound Obama while a failure to engage will permanantly ensconce Obama's electoral margin.
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This from Morris and McGaan writing at RCP:

. . . The Obama ad, which introduces him as someone who worked his way through college, fights for American jobs, and battles for health care also seeks to move him to the center by taking credit for welfare reform in Illinois which, the ad proclaims, reduced the rolls by 80%.

But there's one problem - Obama opposed the 1996 welfare reform act at the time. The Illinois law for which he takes credit, was merely the local implementing law the state was required to pass, and it did, almost unanimously. Obama's implication -- that he backed "moving people from welfare to work" -- is just not true.

With Obama running the ad in all the swing states . . ., this gross usurpation of credit affords the McCain campaign an incredible opportunity for rebuttal.

For the past two weeks, Obama has moved quickly toward the center. He has reversed his previous positions for gun control, against using faith based institutions to deliver public services, against immunity for tele-communications companies that turn records over to the government in terror investigations, for raising Social Security taxes, for imposing the fairness doctrine on talk radio, and a host of other issues.

McCain has watched passively as his rival repositions himself for November. Indeed, he has watched from afar as he took the time out to travel to Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, even though they have no electoral votes.

But now, there is a heaven-sent opportunity for McCain to strike. In his effort to move to the center, Obama has distorted his own record, meager though it may be, and is taking credit for a program he strongly opposed. McCain should immediately run an ad in all of the states in which his opponent is advertising setting forth the facts and explaining Obama's distortion.

A good tag line for the ad would be: "John McCain: when you have real experience, you don't need to exaggerate."

But, if McCain doesn't answer, or just replies with his own positive ad, he will let Obama move to the center, a key mistake from which he may never recover.

. . . On the other hand, if McCain calls him on his distortion, he can do grave damage to Obama on three fronts: credibility, centrism, and experience. By catching Obama in a lie, he can undermine the effectiveness of any subsequent ads the Democrat runs. By showing that he opposed welfare reform, McCain can do much to force Obama back to the left and cast doubt on his efforts to move to the middle. And by emphasizing Obama's limited experience, he can strike at a soft spot --- made softer by Hillary's attacks in the primary.

The move is right there for McCain. Now lets see how good his campaign really is.

Read the entire article. Obama presents a target rich environment and the MSM is doing all they can in their coverage to assist Obama. McCain needs to take full advantage of gifts such as this.