In a campaign in which candidate gaffes have helped fuel a relentless barrage of attack ads on both sides, President Obama has been far quicker than Republican challenger Mitt Romney to jump to his own defense.
Obama’s rapid-response effort — in which any criticism of the candidate is swiftly rebutted in the media — has so far proven far more reliable and effective than Romney’s and that’s starting to concern some Republicans.
Romney had been scoring points against Obama by mocking the president’s claim to business owners that “you didn’t build that.” So the president responded with an ad of his own in which he speaks directly to voters, calmly but firmly rebuffing Romney for “splicing and dicing” the president’s remarks. At the same time, Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, hit the TV news programs defending Obama.
Romney has proven much slower when it comes to fending off Obama’s attacks. Romney’s refusal to make his tax returns public allowed Democrats to repeatedly suggest over several weeks that he had something to hide.
In an effort to blunt Romney’s strongest attribute, his business experience, Democrats have relentlessly attacked Romney’s tenure as head of Bain Capital, claiming he sent American jobs overseas and lied about when he left the venture capital firm. Romney responded with an ad suggesting that such attacks were beneath a president, which many saw as ineffective. While the ongoing attacks have deflated Obama’s popularity somewhat with voters, they did far more damage to Romney, particularly in battleground states, polls show.
Unhappy with the tone and tempo of Romney’s campaign, Republicans are urging their nominee to get more aggressive.
“Romney has got to rebut Obama’s charges about Bain Capital,” said Republican strategist Dick Morris. “He’s got to put [his] story on television and get it out there.”
But Romney appears to believe that answering Obama’s attacks will only extend the life of Democrats’ arguments. In resisting rebuttals, Romney is betting that his ability to remain positive and focused on the economy will ultimately win over voters fed up with Washington.
Others worry that Romney’s strategy could backfire. That’s what happened to Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee. Kerry chose not to respond to attacks on his military service by a group calling itself Swiftboat Veterans, and suffered greatly for it.
“Some people are going to say that if [Romney] isn’t responding, then it must be true so they will believe what Obama is saying and accept the distortions without a critical filter unless Romney gets in the game and provides some response or rationale,” said Craig Smith, a former speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush.
Obama, in contrast, is following in the footsteps of two recently successful campaigns, those of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush, that made it a priority to respond quickly and unequivocally to every attack large or small.
Rarely waiting for Romney to make the first move, the Obama team now routinely delivers pre-buttals to Romney’s major events and speeches.
“The Obama people are in Carville-Clinton mode,” Smith said, referring to Clinton strategist James Carville, “where you have a 24-hour team in place and you respond immediately when your opponent attacks.”
