Visual source: Newseum
As entertaining as the Republican primary has been (and will continue to be for a while -- thank you, Mr. Santorum), the debate over gas prices has brought out general election fighting words from the president and his campaign. First, let's look at the funny things Republicans are saying about President Obama and gas prices. From The St.Louis Today Editorial Board:
The ploy of presidential candidates blaming sitting presidents for rising gas prices is nearly as old as the internal combustion engine. Just one election cycle ago, it was Mr. Obama pulling the same routine against then-President George W. Bush.
But Mr. Romney pulls the punch right out of his attack when, days before he launches it, he makes it clear it's meaningless.
"I think people recognize that the president can't precisely set the price at the pump," Mr. Romney told CNBC just days ago.
Oops.
Actually, it gets worse. At a Republican presidential debate in December, Mr. Romney himself tied Iran to gas prices, saying that as president, he would be responsible for higher prices on gasoline because he'd place "crippling" sanctions on Iran.
Oops again.
Romney inconsistent on gas prices?
Shocking.
The MetroWest Daily News adds some facts into the equation:
The president of the United States is not a factor in high gas prices. Still, a new Washington Post poll shows that only 26 percent of those surveyed approve of his “handling” of gas prices, although exactly how a president is supposed to handle gasoline prices is unclear.
Said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar: “...(T)he oil prices and the gas prices that we pay here in the United States are set on the global market. We don’t set them, and we don’t control them. This president and this Congress can’t control those prices. ...”
President Barack Obama has not been idle on the issue. The drilling-rig count has doubled since he took office. He has opened new areas, including Alaska’s Arctic coast, to drilling. And he has pushed hard for fuel-efficient vehicles. [...] Even when it arrives, the Keystone oil won’t necessarily bring down gasoline prices. The proposed pipeline will terminate in Port Arthur, Texas, an area specifically designated as an export zone. The oil company that owns the fuel will sell it into a global market. Demand in Asia is as important to the price we pay at the pump as supply in North America.
Speaking of energy,
Newt Gingrich uses the energy debate to launch a not-so-subtle attack on President Obama's patriotism:
"We need an American president who is for American energy," Gingrich told a crowd of about 50 people here Thursday. "Someone with American values who will create American jobs on American soil."
While outright birther conspiracies are now generally regarded as desperate and/or crazy, Gingrich's fuzzy birtherism is a thinly-veiled nod to the sizable group of conservatives who are still not convinced that Obama was born in the U.S.
Birther attacks and wrongly blaming the president for rising summer gas prices? The smell of the general election is getting stronger, and as
Jamie Dupree at
The Atlanta Journal Constitution examines, the White House is officially in campaign mode:
While I have been running around the country chasing Republican candidates for the White House, President Obama's own campaign has been quietly prepping for this election year. On Thursday, the first real salvos were fired by the Obama-Biden team.
At the same time, President Obama used an energy speech outside of Washington, D.C. to smack Republicans while Vice President Biden assumed the role of attack dog in a speech to auto workers in Toledo, Ohio.
"Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich -- these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do," Biden said in a fired up tone.
"Simply stated, we’re about promoting the private sector, they’re about protecting the privileged sector," Biden said to applause.
"We are for a fair shot and a fair shake. They’re about no rules, no risks, and no accountability," the Vice President added.
MSNBC's
Chuck Todd adds:
In a speech that the Obama campaign says will be the first of a series of addresses by the vice president framing the general election, Joe Biden today delivers remarks at a United Auto Workers town hall in Toledo, OH at 11:00 am ET. This is the first major campaign speech by either member of the ticket that didn't have a fundraising invite connected to it. According to excerpts released by the campaign, Biden will focus on -- you guessed it -- the auto bailout that Obama supported (and Romney didn’t). “The president didn't flinch. This man has a spine of steel, [...] We all want a president with the courage of his convictions. Well, folks, we have one. He made the tough call. And the verdict is in: President Obama was right and his critics were dead wrong.” Do take note of the somewhat low-key rollout of this speech; it appears this may be more about message testing (and practicing) for the vice president, whose role on this campaign is likely to be similar to the role of previous veeps: serve as both a validator and the chief "contraster."
Yep, that looks like clear message testing, and it's a message that works to set up a stark contrast between the oscillating fan that is Mitt Romney's candidacy and the consistency of the president's own philosophy. "Spine of steel," "courage of convictions"...expect to see a lot more of that rhetoric. I suspect it polls quite well against Romney.
More analysis from Chuck Todd today on the weakness of the Republican frontrunner:
we’ve learned a couple of new things about Romney that we might not have known four years ago: 1) it’s pretty easy to get under his skin; and 2) he’s not very nimble when it comes to turning lemons into lemonade. (Saying you want to repeal Obamacare doesn’t erase all the questions about your past support for an individual mandate.) After losing Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday, Romney is now getting TONS of advice from news outlets -- the latest being from Politico. This is what happens when you don’t put a Rick Santorum away.
Turning to
former frontrunners,
The Dallas Morning News looks at Newt Gingrich's campaign:
His campaign has soared and stumbled, rising on fiery debate performances and falling on actual vote counts. Whatever his impact or influence, his bottom line is a primary triumph in Georgia, his home state, and one next door in South Carolina, two states the GOP is almost certain to carry in November. His “Southern strategy,” based on another comeback in Alabama and Mississippi, fell short.
His new plan is to acquire enough delegates to deny Romney the 1,144 needed to clinch and then win the nomination at a brokered GOP convention in Tampa — a scenario as implausible as the notion that a president can force $2.50-a-gallon gasoline. If Gingrich, with his big ideas and ability to express them, could not persuade rank-and-file Republicans to back him, how does he expect to sway the party’s most committed? [...]
It’s far from certain that every Gingrich supporter, in his absence, would flip to Santorum. But what is certain is that it’s time Republican voters in the states still on the board, including Texas on May 29, had a one-or-the-other choice on their nominee: Romney or Santorum.
Gingrich's "Southern Strategy" fell short, but what of the Republican's Latino strategy of alienation and antagonism?
Maeve Reston at
The Los Angeles Times puts the GOP's Latino problem under a microscope:
Romney's strategists argue that his business savvy will resonate with Latinos, who rank the economy and jobs as their top concern. Speaking before Latino audiences, the former Massachusetts governor has touted his plans to launch an initiative to bring American and Latin American business owners together and create greater opportunity for Latino businesses through tax cuts. [...]
But it is Romney's views on illegal immigration that have drawn the most notice in Latino communities. During the Republican debates, Romney repeatedly sought to outflank his rivals with a hard line on illegal immigration, in part because he has struggled to connect with the party's most conservative voters. [...]
Democrats believe that the Republican rhetoric in recent months will create greater opportunities for Obama in states like Colorado, Florida and possibly even Arizona. To guard against erosion in the GOP's standing in those states and "be competitive" this fall, Republican pollster Whit Ayres said, the GOP candidates must do a better job of reaching out to Latino voters. The visits to Puerto Rico this week by Romney and Santorum are a start, he said.