The President Might Think You're Stupid

One of my favorite lines in movie history came in the first Godfather. Michael Corleone is confronting his brother in law Carlo for betraying his family, a betrayal which led to the brutal murder of Michaels Brother Sonny. Carlo says he's innocent and Michael answers back with the iconic "don't tell me you're innocent because it insults my intelligence." When you tell someone something inaccurate you're assuming that they don't know the truth, that they're ignorant to the actual facts. Assuming anyone is ignorant can therefore BE rather insulting to one's intelligence. The Obama campaign messaging strategy is a massive insult to the intelligence of ANYONE who has actually been paying attention to the last four years.

In 2008 we saw what the media has lauded as the most savvy campaigns in modern history. "Hope and Change," while exceedingly simple became powerful standards for all who were willing to accept them at face value. While I will refrain from digressing into a diatribe about hollow words and failed promises, I will again credit the Obama campaign with powerful messaging strategy which fired up the masses. The President was a powerful orator (I said "was" purposely because I don't think his speeches have the same power after his words have proven to be so void of actual meaning) and ensured his followers with "yes we can." They believed it then but what is the Obama campaign giving them to believe in this time around? The President and his staff made some curious campaign moves last week that may illustrate the answer to that question.

First, the Presidents economic address. His communications staff billed it as a speech that would ensure the middle class that the President had their back.  It would ensure them that better times were coming. The caveat: there would be no new policy and no new ideas. Translation: "we know the middle class is struggling, but we aren't going to do anything about it. We will, however, speak directly to them so that we can at least get their votes." That's poor messaging, and that's just their "positive" campaign efforts.

Another little blunder came in the form of a rally comment in which the President compared the deficit to a dinner check, with republicans running up the tab and then leaving before the bill comes. I have three problems with that. 1) the President actually DID dine and dash the same week. 2) The analogy doesn't work on a factual basis considering that the President has already added more in his three years than his republican predecessor did in 8 years. and 3) It's not like every single democrat left DC during the Bush years, in fact they controlled both houses of congress after 2006, right when the economy started plummeting. So the "blame bush" argument is absolutely ridiculous.

The Tale of Two Buses

Audience at the Romney Bus Tour

The Democrats "Romney Road Show" Bus

The most ridiculous messaging of
the week though came from what Twitchy has labelled "The Tale of Two Buses." Brad Woodhouse, Democratic Party Communications director in the form of the #RomneyRoadShow bus. It was an answer to the "Every Town Counts"bus tour Romney is currently taking through swing states. The Romney bus is going from town to town holding rallies, pancake breakfasts, and campaigning with high-level surrogates from Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire to Rob Portman and John
Boehner in Ohio. The bus tour has drawn massive crowds and has even drawn the attention of the Democratic party. As a sort of answer to the Romney bus, the Democratic National Committee organized the "Romney Road Show" which would travel around and attempt to discredit Romney. The bus itself was a worn down tour bus with black and yellow signs seemingly fastened to the side of the bus with scotch tape. At the near-empty stops, volunteers unenthusiastically held up the aesthetically unpleasing "Romney Economics" which are the relics of the Obama campaigns ironic attempt to paint Romney's record as unsuccessful. It was an abject failure because a president that presides over a credit downgrade, the slowest recovery in history (which is actually looking more and more like a double dip recession everyday) and 30+ straight months of unemployment over 8% cannot attack anyone's economic record without looking like a complete idiot. For republicans, the #RomneyRoadShow has given some great entertainment in the form of tweeted pictures.  First, a picture of the sign-holding events. There is no enthusiastic audience, just a group of volunteers standing in front of a building holding these ugly signs. They also released photos from the launch of the bus, with a few supporters looking as though that was the last place they wanted to be. I've seen more enthusiastic faces than that at the back of the line in the DMV. These pictures were actually tweeted by Brad Woodhouse and the official Democratic Party twitter account along with the tweet "supporters crowd the Obama for America office in Exeter, NH for the kick-off of the DNCs #RomneyRoadShow.

There are two faces in particular that made me chuckle. The first was the gentleman on the ground. He seems to be looking longingly for an escape.. perhaps even oncoming traffic would be preferable to his role as a pawn in these shenanigans. While the gentleman to his left looks to be using a camera for the first time, he isn't even taking pictures with his. Just looking off into the distance at what is assuredly a better place then the pathetic sideshow he is witnessing. The Second picture (on the right) speaks for itself. Where is the fire of hope and change that led to such a sweeping victory in 2008?

The answer to that question is simple. It is impossible to fire up a party, a base, even volunteers to the message "ignore our record, that guy is (hypothetically) worse. Hope and change was a message that appealed to people. Now all the democrats want to talk about is how rich Mitt Romney is, how white he is, or how he pronounces his words. There is no hope, there will be no change, and the desperation is as pathetic as it is insulting to America's intelligence.

You may disagree with my presentation of the facts, and if you do I challenge you to see for yourself. Look at the following twitter timelines and ask yourself "if i wanted to support President Obama, what message would I consider the most exciting, the most inspiring and the best reason to vote for President Obama.
Brad Woodhouse- @woodhouseB -Democratic Party Communications Director
Lis Smith- @lis_smith -Obama campaign director of rapid response
The Democrats- @thedemocrats- Official Twitter of the Democratic Party
The "truth team"- @truthteam2012- The fighters for truth in the Obama campaign- their bio says "fight the smears" but there twitter is almost completely devoted to smearing and distorting others.
Jim Messina- @messina2012 - I can't really tell you what he says or does, because he blocked me for questioning something stupid and inaccurate that he said. Or something.

The Obama campaign is no longer about hope and change but about blaming other people, distracting from their own record, and attacking Mitt Romney for how me might hypothetically run the country. The media will let him get away with it, and they will even aid him in his efforts. In the age of 140 characters, where a simple #hashtag can tell a story, we must demand more. The President does not think voters are intelligent enough to see through his campaign, but in November he just might be proven wrong.