Wednesday 16 May 2012

Video: Is Obama taking a page from the GOP playbook?



>>> back to politics and president obama 's strategy to become only the second democrat to win reelection since fdr. is the president taking pages from the gop play book to get four more years? the huff post howard fineman wrote, it is more confrontational and definitive than the model used by bill clinton who won election twice but never with an outright majority. essentially by blurring his party's differences with a conservative gop . let's bring in " huffington post " washington bureau chief ryan grimm in. he has pointed out this was an article written by howard fineman but he writes down some of the items he said to consider from this play book. first describe the gop play book, how it was rensing?

>> well, it is one that is aggressive. it employs cultural wedge issues and it exploits national security in a way that democrats are generally uncomfortable with. but we've seen democrats, we've seen obama do that a couple time already. he was asked, romney says that you're weak on defense. you're not able to make a decision. obama shot back, oh, yeah? ask osama bin laden . that's not the kind of thing that a stereotypical kind of weak-kneed liberal would say. so in many ways he has adopted some of these more aggressive tactics.

>> again, the wording was confrontational and definitive. was howard referencing the definitive part when discussing same sex marriage?

>> sure. both same sex marriage and immigration. typically, democrats are the ones that are getting hit with the wedge issues like they did in 2004 with same sex marriage. they got hit with crime and with welfare all throughout the 80s. so much so they just completely threw their hands up and basically gave up defending welfare. and so instead of that posture, you have obama defending same sex marriage. and you have him calling republicans basically bigots for their immigration position. trying to box them into a corner in a way that democrats really haven't tried to do as howard said, generations.

>> also, howard points out, paint your foe as out of the main stream. and mitt romney being an elitist. we started the week talking about this two-minute bain ad and now the pro obama super pac. it is now going up in five different states. colorado, ohio, pennsylvania, and virginia. with its own so-called bain ad going after mitt romney and his business pass and not in the way he would like.

>> sure. romney is simply unable to connect. say whatever you want about george bush but he was kind of an affable guy. he was easy to hate for his policies but even a lot of people that disliked him, disliked him as a president would say, yeah, i guess he seems like a nice guy . eight years in, that kind of, that kind of didn't wear very well. with mitt romney , there is no sense of that. there is no sense that he could sit down and say, talk about college basketball like the president does. and he really exploits that. sitting down for an interview with espn and as noonly about sports as any spb commentator.

>> to be spare, people aren't voting for your knowledge of sports. we would be doomed if that was the case. with that said, ryan , with all of the things outlined in this piece, we know even the president acknowledged on "the view" during his interview this will be a tight race. with all of those things that howard woints out, he may be doing right or doing the gop way and fighting. it is still very tight. whether you believe the latest polling out or not, this is what the president and his team has clearly indicated they are expecting.

>> right. and look at the things that he is fighting on. immigration, same sex marriage, national security . you did not hear the economy mention asked that's for a very obvious reason. the economy is in the tank. and so no matter how effective the president might be as a campaigner, for people who are going to make this a referendum on the economy, he is going to be in serious trouble no matter what.

>> all right. " huffington post " ryan

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