The Obama Campaign Unveils A Campaign of Falsehoods
President Barack Obama took a decidedly personal approach to his latest attacks on his likely GOP opponent in the fall campaign, Mitt Romney today at the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) Convention in Washington, telegraphing what will surely be the most divisive campaign in recent history.
Obama accused Romney of supporting “thinly veiled social Darwinism” in backing a budget which sharply reduces taxes for millionaires while cutting public spending on education, justice and medical research.
Many people despise politics because the first victim is always honesty; sadly the fall campaign will be another example of twisting of facts to gain political advantage.
Obama’s harsh remarks are a clear sign that the White House has decided to move forward with attacks against Romney rather than waiting for the primaries to run their course. Traditionally incumbents hold their fire against a specific individual until their opposition party picks a candidate; however Barack Obama is anything but a traditional candidate.
Romney will almost certainly solidify his frontrunner status today with victories in the primaries being held in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, DC, surpassing the halfway mark in delegates required for the nomination.
The Obama campaign has decided to embrace the tact of defining their opponent before their opponent can define themselves. The risk to the Obama campaign is that they look petty and opportunistic in the process. Mr. Obama has developed a reputation as thin-skinned when criticized and this approach rounds out his appearance as a man more obsessed with his personal destiny than that of the nation; no matter how divisive an approach, if it helps him hold on to office he’s all-in.
Obama’s speech in Washington focused on Romney’s support for the Republican budget proposed by Paul Ryan, R-Wis. in the House of Representatives, which includes deep budget cuts necessary to address the federal deficit. Obama called the GOP’s justification “laughable” as he took a pointed stab at the parallel tax breaks for millionaires – an issue on which Romney is particularly vulnerable because of his estimated $220 million fortune.
Once again Mr. Obama avails himself of misinformation to distort both his opponent’s views and the GOP budget, which offers no additional tax breaks for millionaires than are currently on the books; in fact, Mr. Obama signed into law an extension of the current tax breaks enacted by his predecessor.
The president painted the Republicans as serving the rich over the middle class by proposing “more than a trillion dollars in tax giveaways for people making more than $250,000 a year”; but no such “giveaway” exists in the proposed budget.
“That’s an average of at least $150,000 for every millionaire in this country,” Mr. Obama said. “It is a Trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans. It is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It is thinly veiled social Darwinism. It is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity.”
The Occupy Agenda: Obama’s Divide and Concur Strategy
Since Obama cannot run on a record of fiscal responsibility nor point to his administration’s success in rebuilding the economy, he will run a campaign based solely on dividing the country into those who have and those who do not. Obama will emplyo every issue that divides Americans and any words he can muster to widen those gaps.
Obama said that along with the tax breaks, that do not exist, would come “massive new cuts in domestic spending,” supported by Mr. Romney, that would ‘pull up the ladder for the next generation’. Benefits would be removed that had helped uplift millions of Americans. I don’t think people fully appreciate the nature of this budget,” Obama said.
Perhaps the harshest thing you can say about a politician is that they are a liar, but spreading misinformation for political gain is hard to categorize as any other than willful dishonesty.
Obama went on to say, “Two million mothers and young children would be cut from a program that gives them access to healthy food. We wouldn’t have the capacity to enforce the laws that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink or the food that we eat. Republicans may say well we’ll avoid some of these cuts, since they don’t specify exactly the cuts they would make. But they can only avoid some of these cuts if they cut even deeper in other areas. This is math.”
It’s difficult to judge the Obama’s attack of half-truths and all-out fabrications against Mr. Romney as anything but an act of desperation. How far has Barack Obama, this historic figure, who held his triumphant victory speech in 2008 at Grant Park in Chicago fallen? Obama’s domestic policies have been disastrous; attempting to re-engineer health care, nurture a society of government dependency and adopting favored-status for industries not supported by the marketplace, Obama will surely be regarded as one of the greatest failures in presidential history; yet unless the GOP get’s their act together he may also have another term to further his misguided agenda.