P*O
发帖数: 4324 | 1 Team Obama Preening, Romney Camp Eye-Rolling, Frayed Nerves For Both
In essence, the preening and eye-rolling, the chest-thumping and sarcasm
across the tense terrain of this presidential election reflects the
difficulty of understanding the dimensions of the 2012 political universe.
It can be said Obama remade the known political universe in 2008 when he
boosted turnout in Iowa and most other caucus states and held on to capture
the Democratic nomination over Hillary Rodham Clinton. He similarly expanded
the universe by boosting his 2008 vote total by nearly 10 million over John
Kerry in 2004 (McCain managed to shrink GOP turnout to 59.9 million from
Bush the younger's 2004 total of 62 million).
But even since Obama's 2008 victory, the universe he created has shrunk. It
did so in 2009 in the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia where
Obama campaigned but Republicans Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell won. It
shrank conspicuously in 2010 when Republicans reversed many of the
Democratic congressional gains achieved in 2006 and 2008.
What, then, will be the size of the universe on Tuesday? Can Obama prevail
in a less hospitable partisan climate? Can he reverse the GOP backlash of
2010 or even the recall muscle the GOP deployed to protect Walker in
Wisconsin earlier this year?
Obama's team believes it knows the political terrain better than Romney,
that its voter contacts, outreach, registration, and mobilization can
withstand any partisan tide. This is the core of its preening confidence and
certainty. Romney has some data but also - and more importantly - an
intuitive sense that American attitudes and temperament are primed for
change.
In this, Obama bets on hard-bitten pragmatism and Romney the emotive punch
of possibility. Obama the spread-sheet, Romney the romantic. Irony, thy name
is campaign 2012.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/team-obama-preening-r |
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