He’s been involved in presidential politics since 1983, so when Democratic campaign advisor Joe Trippi talks strategy, people listen. And his latest analysis of President Obama’s reelection tactics is winning attention.
Late last week, in a banquet room stuck in a corner of the Rayburn House Office Building basement, he told a group assembled by the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government that the president’s team is trying to “jolt” Mitt Romney with issues the Republican has difficulty reacting to immediately. Two recent examples: Obama’s decisions to let children of illegal immigrants stay in the country and his endorsement of gay marriage.
“There is a pattern to it,” said Trippi, who most recently helped Jerry Brown win the California gubernatorial race despite being obscenely outspent by Republican Meg Whitman. “The Obama campaign is doing a lot of polling and a lot of focus groups on a big jolt that they are going to put into the system,” he said, explaining that Team Obama is on the search for more issues that will jazz supporters and stump Romney.
Armed with polls, he added, the Obama-Biden campaign knows “ahead of time all the numbers (on issues) and how it is affecting any of the states that they are looking at.” And when they find a good one, they unleash it, wow their backers and hope Romney is caught unprepared.
Pollster and political analyst John Zogby agreed, telling Secrets, “With the president getting a bump in the polls after immigration policy announcement, it is wise for him to get into Romney’s face because Romney is trapped.” Plus, he said, “it helps Obama put Romney on the defensive at a time when Romney only wants to talk about the economy. This is hardball.”
Romney advisors, however, said that on issues like gay marriage and immigration, the president’s team is pandering. What’s more, they said the issues are an effort by Obama to divert attention away from the economy, which polls show Romney owns.
