Jul 15, 2012 No Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Excerpted from Big Government: Over the past few weeks, many people have compared what Obama is doing to Romney to what George W. Bush did to Kerry in 2004. But there are some major differences, making the approach a risky one for the Obama campaign.
First off, this is the President of the United States brazenly wrist-flicking the facts in an attempt to destroy his opponent’s biography. In ’04, it wasn’t Bush who was behind the Swiftboat Veteran ads, it was an outside group. Also, the Vets questioning Kerry’s record in Vietnam were able to back up their charges because many of those guys served with Kerry there. Obama’s basing his primary attack on something the Washington Post , CNN, and numerous fact checkers have declared untrue.
Though the media hasn’t made Obama pay a price for this, Romney has begun to hit back with a narrative concerning the president’s credibility, and this latest attack will only help to feed that narrative.
Secondly, this Obama attack is extremely heavy-handed and even uncomfortable to watch. It’s a vicious, demeaning, and mean-spirited ad meant to humiliate its target. This is far from the inspirational, hope-changey Barack Obama voters fell for in 2008 and a very different approach than the Bush campaign’s towards Kerry. Though they mocked Kerry, it was with a much lighter touch. Whether you supported Kerry or not, you almost had to laugh.
