Commenting on the escalating negativity in the presidential campaign, Chuck Todd, of MSNBC, suggested on his show this morning, that Governor Mitt Romney's campaign has realized that they can not raise their own negative favorability numbers, so will try to take town President Obama's positives.
In a Post I wrote last night, I illustrated Romney's "reverse-the-frame" diversion, made famous by Karl Rove, of taking any negative charge against the Romney campaign and attacking the President using the exact same word and/or themes.
So this morning we see Mitt Romney promising to defend Medicare from the attacks from President Obama and the Democrats which he promises to put back in a budget he will reveal only after he is elected, even though the Medicare savings from elimination of fraud, and cost controls in the ACA he is talking about, were included in Paul Ryan's budgets, which Romney is saying he will with something he will specify after he is elected.
This morning Romney says it is President Obama who is "unhinged," as reported by the Associated Press. Romney just takes the exact words used by Tom Burton last night to respond to Romney's angry tirade.
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney charged Wednesday that President Barack Obama is running a campaign "of enmity and jealousy and anger" and called on him to lift the tone of political discourse.
In an escalation of an increasingly acrimonious campaign, Romney went on national television to say he thinks Obama is "running just to hang onto power, and I think he would do anything in his power" to remain in office.
Romney was asked about the charge from the Obama campaign that the Romney campaign has become "unhinged." "I think unhinged would have to characterize what we've seen from the president's campaign," he said.
"These personal attacks, I think, are just demeaning to the office of the White House," he added.
So, Team Romney appears to have a big whiteboard of all words, themes, and issues used to against them on post-its, which they mix up and reorganize into an attack against President Obama, as fast as possible, now down to a response time of hours. I've taught this creativity technique, in classes I've taught on strategic facilitation. They can be fun. Karl Rove's theory is that this will confuse and distract voters and prevent any of these attacks from sticking. For example, if the words "attacks on Medicare" come up, Rove hopes you will now think, "Oh, President Obama stealing funds from Medicare to support the ACA" and not remember yesterday's attack "Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare as we know it."
In another conspicuous example of the Reverse The Frame diversion technique, Romney has taken the stories from late last week that he was so "exhausted" that he canceled a fund raising even in Florida, and others that his campaign chose the unconventional "run to the right" instead of the center, out of desperation, in recognition that his electoral college positions was negative and eroding, and combined it with the allegations that his campaign was intellectually bankrupts, and reversed the frame to attack President Obama as "intellectually exhausted."
Mitt Romney called President Obama "an intellectually exhausted leader," who is "angry and desperate," according to NBC's Garret Haake. Garret Haake.
CHILLICOTHE, OH – Mitt Romney used the final rally on his five-state bus tour to paint President Obama as an "intellectually exhausted" leader, forced to resort to "angry and desperate" tactics in his battle for re-election.
"This is an election in which we should be talking about the path ahead, but you don't hear any answers coming from President Obama’s re-election campaign,” Romney said. “That’s because he's intellectually exhausted, out of ideas, and out of energy. And so his campaign has resorted to diversions and distractions, to demagoguing and defaming others. It’s an old game in politics; what’s different this year is that the president is taking things to a new low."
"This is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like," Romney said. "President Obama knows better, promised better and America deserves better."
"Over the last four years, this president has pushed Republicans and Democrats about as far apart as they can go,” Romney continued. “And now he and his allies are pushing us all even further apart by dividing us into groups. He demonizes some. He panders to others. His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then try to cobble together 51 percent of the pieces."
And, again responding to Ben LaBolts comment that Romney's tirade about President Obama's "angry and jealous" negative campaign, Romney responded.
"Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting America," Romney said. ... “Governor Romney's comments tonight seemed unhinged, and particularly strange coming at a time when he's pouring tens of millions of dollars into negative ads that are demonstrably false,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said.
But, the only one looking angry and desperate is Mitt Romney. President Obama was seen speaking in Iowa, relaxed, and making light hearted jokes about Mitt Romney's 'you can't power a car with a windmill strapped on the roof' by jesting, 'I wonder if Romney has tried this, I know he's stapped other things to his roof,' referring to the Seamus story.
Remember, how we've been saying for months that Mitt Romney will "say or do anything to be President," and that he is desperate? The Romney campaign, ads, and surrogates are now saying President Obama is so desperate that he will "say or do anything to get reelected."
Some think maybe Mitt Romney is cracking up under the incredible stress of several solid months of steady attacks from Democrats, combined with his incredible series of gaffes. But, it may just be that the hard core conservatives, steeped in Rovian strategy and tactics, have finally plugged themselves into his war room, and daily speech writing.
We will soon know for sure, if Romney starts accusing President Obama and Joe Biden, of racism, demands we all release our taxes, and demands the President explain how his faith is consistent with his insidious plans to destroying Medicare.