The stark contrast between the two White House contenders doesn’t end with their party platforms or differing visions for the future of America – it extends right down to their last minute Election Day strategies. The Romney campaign has decided to hit the campaign trail hard on Election Day with several last minute campaign rallies for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, while President Obama will reportedly be playing basketball in Chicago and conducting a few battleground state television interviews.
But team Obama isn’t totally taking today off – in the wake of the Romney campaign’s surprise campaign stops in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, Joe Biden has made an “unannounced” campaign stop in Cleveland, Ohio today. The one-upsmanship game seems to be being played right down to the wire.
It could be argued that campaigning on Election Day is essentially pointless, but the Romney campaign obviously sees at least some benefit in rallying the troops in the eleventh hour. It was announced last night via press release that Mitt and Ann Romney were making an early morning stop in Belmont, Massachusetts to vote, followed by campaign stops in Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Perhaps taking a cue from the Romney campaign’s surprise Election Day rallies, Vice President Biden surprised reporters by making an “unannounced but long-scheduled stop” in Cleveland, Ohio this morning according to an 11:35 am pool report by Michael Memoli. Memoli also noted in the 11:55 am pool report issued 20 minutes later that “to the right side of the plane [Air Force Two], pool could see the Romney campaign plane a couple hundred yards away.”
And according to a press release sent out at 10:24pm last night, Mitt Romney too wasn’t afraid to use his right hand man to do some last-minute campaigning as Paul Ryan is scheduled to make several battleground campaign stops today. Paul Ryan will appear in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin today to vote, followed by stops in Cleveland, Ohio and Richmond, Virginia to rally for the GOP ticket.
The president isn’t flying around to scramble for votes, but rather playing it more low key with scheduled television interviews today in the battleground states of Iowa, Florida, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. according to a pool report issued this morning at 11:07am. Obama campaign adviser and former White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs defended the president’s decision not to campaign this morning in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” stating, “We felt it was important not to go into a state and take our volunteers and our field operation away from the task that they’re doing and instead, be there to support the president, to create a crowd or have a rally, so I think it was the right decision to do. The president will still be in a number of battleground states over satellite television today.”
But in an interview on NBC, Gibbs was forced to confront the perception that the president might appear a little too relaxed on Election Day. NBC’s Savannah Guthrie wondered aloud in an interview with Gibbs this morning if the president’s lack of campaigning on Election Day was “a sign of confidence, or perhaps overconfidence.” Gibbs answered that charge by stating, “I think we felt the president would have a better reach to sit here and do some satellite interviews into states and make sure that the folks that we have out getting out our vote in important states aren’t burdened by having to support him coming into their state today.”
But what do these two opposing views of how to spend Election Day actually say about the candidates and their campaigns? Romney could like a desperate challenger, afraid of losing… or he could look determined and focused until the bitter end as one who won’t go down without a fight. Obama on the other hand, either looks cool, calm and collected as he sits back and lets the votes roll in pushing him to reelection… or he looks lazy and overconfident.
Only the next 12 hours will be able to tell which campaign’s strategy worked and which man is able to put his feet up and enjoy the sweet taste of victory.
