Two pieces of advice for the Obama campaign at the next debate and beyond. First, go on offense on the Benghazi incident. Second, ignore Mark Halperin and continue the Romnesia offensive. More after the squiggle.
First, on Benghazi, David Ignatius has an absolute must-read piece that acquits Susan Rice of the slander perpetrated by Romney and others against her, that is, that she was making up a story about the Benghazi assault to make Obama look good. The truth? She was telling the public precisely what the CIA, headed by David Petraeus, was telling her.
Methinks that Obama should go on the offensive now on this and excoriate Romney at the first opportunity Monday night for (a) rushing to the cameras to exploit the tragedy in the first instance; and (b) defaming honorable public servants like Susan Rice out of a desire to find something, anything to tarnish Obama's sterling record on foreign policy and to hide Romney's own failings on the issue. I'd love to see Obama do this right out of the box Monday night. Romney is at his worst when he's been thrown back on his heels. He's not a good counterpuncher.
Second. Surprise, surprise. Mark Halperin thinks that Obama's pivot yesterday to Romnesia is a mistake. Halperin quotes with approval a Romney operative who says he found the Romnesia attack to be too small ball for a presidential campaign. Before the endless ads of Kerry windsurfing worked for the Republicans, I might have agreed.
Halperin may not realize he's being played. Of course if "Boston" really thought the Romnesia attack line was not resonating they wouldn't be complaining to Halperin about it. My guess: Boston correctly things that the Serious People in the Media will tisk tisk at it, but that the attack is devastating to actual voters. The "Romnesia" line captures what is new and different about Romney's special brand of opportunism. He's not so much a "flip flopper" as commonly understood; that would suggest he's openly changed a past position. He's actually a liar who pretends to support the popular side of an issue when he's before a mass TV audience while actually supporting the opposite side in his official literature and the like. The routine where his spokesperson "clarifies" on Fox News what Romney has declared to be his position on broader-audience venues has become too common to be viewed as anything but a deliberate strategy to deceive the larger public and low information voters while reassuring the base. The word "Romnesia" is actually the nicest way to capture this brand of opportunism.