That's how the President will want the question framed. Perhaps we can explore other options.
It is an oft cited talking point of former members of the Bush administration that after 9/11, we were kept safe from terrorist attacks. I’ve agreed. While I have my criticisms of President Bush in other areas, on this I have always given him praise for what I understood to be a monumental job of constant diligence.
It was said of President Obama during his 2008 campaign that there existed a fear of his not keeping us safe, most memorably in Hillary Clinton’s “3 a.m. phone call” commercial.
Since we have not been attacked on the scale of 9/11, President Obama will in all likelihood claim our continued safety as his own job well done. What is good for Dick Cheney, he will argue, is good for Barack Obama.
At the center of his talking point on keeping us safe will be his killing of Osama bin Laden. It has already started. Today he contrasted himself and Mitt Romney, suggesting his likely opponent would not have killed bin Laden, based upon past statements.
The Romney campaign will face a challenge between now and November on how to respond to the President’s claim of success in keeping us safe.
I’m curious as to what suggestions we might have for the Romney campaign. There are a number of choices that come to mind, some already being tried by Romney. Here are a few:
- Call it shameful to use our safety as a political talking point.
- Pivot the conversation to foreign policy criticisms of the President.
- Embarrass the President with his renaming the war on terror to variations like “war on Al Qaeda, its affiliates, and adherents” or the even more clerkish sounding (if that’s even possible) “overseas contingency operations.”
I stand fearful, however, of this simple rebuttal: “The people complaining the loudest are doing so blanketed by the safety afforded them by my administration.” This will be an attempt by the President to make Mitt Romney seem ungrateful toward our military and police.
There is another option for Romney that is often used in courtrooms and I’m wondering if it is similarly used in political campaigns: Concede the issue. There are two ways of doing this.
One way I've done it is to bring up the issue that is least helpful to me before the other guy does. The goal is to show honesty by not hiding it and to have the jury (voters) hear it said in the best possible light for my client (law of primacy: studies show people tend toward believing what they hear first).
The other method is to concede by ignoring. The last thing I want to do is highlight my weakness or my adversary’s strength. If my client’s case is filled with many other issues, I’ll let one tough issue pass without comment to let it get lost or have the jury conclude that my lack of concern about it means it’s not an issue at all. I’ll admit that particular brand of subtlety is to be used with caution (but it does work).
The polar opposite of conceding the issue is to punch it out in the center of the ring, perhaps like this: When the President claims success at keeping us safe from terrorists, Mitt Romney could bring up the Ft.Hood killings as proof of the President’s failure in keeping America safe.
Will Romney open himself up to the criticism of politicizing the Ft. Hood killings or insensitivity to the victim's families? The Democrats will certainly say that, but how will the American people view it when they do? What must linger in the campaign strategist’s mind is this: Perhaps that strategy will work because it is true, and it may neutralize the claim of success of the President.
Are there any other options you can offer the Romney campaign on how to deal with this issue when the President claim's strength (as he did today)?
Which option do you think is best?
- Comment (29)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (0)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments:
Mar '11
Re: Campaign Dilemma: Is Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists Easy, Or Did President Obama Do A Good Job?
Mr Obama's primary goal is the "fundamental transformation" of America into something like Venezuela, but without the oil.
He does enough on the "War on Terror" (which, apparently, is won) to prevent it interrupting his goal - that is all.
Apr '11
Re: Campaign Dilemma: Is Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists Easy, Or Did President Obama Do A Good Job?
Robert Mitchell
Western Chauvinist: How about telling the truth?
The only calculation Obama made in making his decision was how the success or failure might affect his politicalfortunes. . · 1 hour ago
And you can bet if the mission had gone wrong, the Vice Admiral who actually planned and directed it would've been thrown under the bus.
Am I the only one to smell desperation in this kind of blatant politicization of the raid? This seems awful early in a campaign to be "going there" no? Makes me wonder what kind of internals Team Obama is seeing in the polls already. · 51 minutes ago
No you're not the only one. I think Team Obama knows he's going down in November.
Jul '11
Re: Campaign Dilemma: Is Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists Easy, Or Did President Obama Do A Good Job?
Give Obama credit on Osama bin Laden, it was a gutsy call with a lot of possible political downside for him. He did it right. After acknowledging the ONE thing he has done right feel free to point out all the others thngs that he did wrong or did not do at all.
May '10
Re: Campaign Dilemma: Is Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists Easy, Or Did President Obama Do A Good Job?
Romney: "Decisions are the easiest part of a mission. And it is important to have a decisive leader when the time for decisions is at hand. I know this. I have made many decisions as a business leader, as a governor, in the Olympics, and elsewhere. However, it is shameful when a leader, in a comfortable chair in an air conditioned office, tries to take credit for the actual hard, dangerous work of a mission carried out by people who have put their lives on the line for their country. Each of those Seal Team members might have come home in a body bag. The President faced no such danger. To suggest his decision was courageous is to denigrate the sacrifice made by the real heroes."
May '11
Re: Campaign Dilemma: Is Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists Easy, Or Did President Obama Do A Good Job?
I don't see any need to concede anything to Obama.
It's quite possible that the raid was successful despite Obama's dithering, rather than because he made a decisive and gutsy call.
He may be overplaying his hand already anyway...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137636/SEALs-slam-Obama-using-ammunition-bid-credit-bin-Laden-killing-election-campaign.html
And if I may be an armchair General for a minute, wouldn't it have been more useful to have captured OBL alive, interrogated him, then executed him, and keep quiet about it for as long as possible while any intelligence obtained was acted on ?
Can't recall who said it, but I seem to remember some pundit last year saying that "they had to kill him to keep him out of the hands of Eric Holder" !
Feb '11
Re: Campaign Dilemma: Is Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists Easy, Or Did President Obama Do A Good Job?
I would thank Obama for making the economy so bad that the terrorists couldn't afford to attack us.
Aug '10
Re: Campaign Dilemma: Is Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists Easy, Or Did President Obama Do A Good Job?
Mitt has already answered the Obama team's speculation on his hypothetical behavior. Obama's decision to let the SEALS do what they do is commendable. That point seems undeniable to me, and those who deny him any credit come across as needlessly antagonistic, even small.
Romney strikes me as a classy guy, I would be shocked if he used the Ft. Hood incident as a political weapon. I think he has t0o much respect for the murdered servicemen, their comrades, and their loved ones to take that low road. And he is cagey enough to see that rhetoric blowing back on him.
When it comes to terrorism and drones and such, Obama has been kicking a__ and taking names. That is a bitter pill for conservatives to swallow, but we should man up and do just that.
Isn't the economy bad? I thought I heard that.
Edited on May 1, 2012 at 9:50pmRe: Campaign Dilemma: Is Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists Easy, Or Did President Obama Do A Good Job?
Great comments, and I think the stickiness of this wicket is revealed by how split we seem to be on the suggestions.
May Mitt's team work their way through it.
Jan '12
Re: Campaign Dilemma: Is Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists Easy, Or Did President Obama Do A Good Job?
This is a delicate one but in short Romney needs to acknowledge the success of the mission and the fact that Obama authorized it. Kudos to Obama.
He then needs to go into the classless nature of the victory lap Obama has taken. Count up the number of times Obama said "I" or "me" during the initial speech. I remember counting at the time and it was an astronomically high number. This is not how a true leader behaves.