New Obama ad will “run on our record,” but leave out …

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Saturday was supposed to be President Barack Obama’s day, dominated by headlines of successful campaign holding its first rally. Instead, reports prominently included references to thousands of empty seats at the president’s first rally here — just as the Romney campaign wanted it.

At The Ohio State University, over 5,000 seats in the 20,000-person venue went unfilled on the upper seating deck and behind the press cameras —a sharp contrast to Obama’s events in 2008, and even a 2010 event with then-Gov. Ted Strickland which drew 35,000.

ABC News had reported Saturday morning that the campaign expected “overflow” crowds at each event, crowds which never did materialize.

The New York Times quoted Obama senior adviser David Plouffe, not about the president’s remarks, but about the crowd size — with reporter Mark Landler comparing the rallies to “a concert by an aging rock star.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/how-mitt-romneys-campaign-put-a-damper-on-obama

mountainaires on May 7, 2012 at 9:30 AM

What you don’t know–yet–about Mitt Romney:

A number of things have gone unmentioned about Romney — by the media because they’ll say nothing positive about him, by conservatives because they don’t want to face up to it. First, he does not miss a trick. At the height of the Santorum’s primary campaign, Romney managed to outdo him by the stratagem of sending one of his sons to campaign in the Marianas, picking up 9 delegates and added momentum. This is something that would never have occurred to the conventional Republican political technician, most of whom have no idea where the Marianas are. It’s a swashbuckler’s move, bold and imaginative in a way that we haven’t seen much of in recent years. The fact that Romney pulled it off without getting anything in the way of credit for it says more about the current political culture than it does about Mitt Romney. (Under ordinary circumstances, Newt could be expected to admire such a move. I have no doubt that Newt knows exactly where the Marianas are, and may be thinking about building a spaceport there.)

Romney does not apologize. When caught out in a faux pas (as when he mentioned his three — or was it five? — Cadoos) he does not get flustered; he does not allow himself to be cornered; he just smiles and moves on. When is the last time we saw this level of confidence in a candidate?

The same is true of the killer instinct, which Romney undoubtedly possesses, in contrast to just about every other visible candidate. Also beyond doubt is his ability to control it. He knows exactly how hard to strike, where, and how many times, with the precision and finesse of a 17th-century samurai. When the Romney PACs cut loose on Santorum and Gingrich, they blasted away just long enough to inflict mortal wounds without making a spectacle out of it. Romney got all the benefit he required without in the least tainting his brand.

The point is that Romney has become something of a master campaigner, of a type that we have not seen in a long time. He knows exactly what cards are on the table and who is holding which ones, and he lays down his own one at a time with no hurry or fuss. And so far, he has taken the pot more times than he has lost. (Granted that in real life Romney may never have been in the same room with a deck of cards.)

Thus far, Romney has gone through the campaign like a tank in a thousand-dollar suit — accepting no opposition, turning away from no obstacles. He just keeps rolling. It’s nearly impossible to run a flawless campaign in the information era. Too many people are watching, waiting to pounce on any error, and the 24/7 news cycle is guaranteed to keep any such story rolling. But despite his Cadillacs, his slips of the tongue, and poor Seamus out in the slipstream, Romney has come as close as anybody in the past quarter-century.

Another point being overlooked is that Mormons are no longer either hated or feared. Despite overtime work by the media, anti-Mormonism has been unable to gain any sort of traction. Mormonism is no longer an issue. The ghosts of Nauvoo and Mountain Meadows have gone to rest at last, and the Saints have become an acceptable American variant. Somewhere in Valhalla, Joseph Smith is smiling.

A master campaigner — the only one on the national horizon — vast resources, a likeable family, an admirable record, and nobody hates him for being a Mormon (as far as I can tell, nobody hates Romney for anything). And to top it off, there’s that undeniable touch of the assassin. All this does not make him a conservative, but it does make him formidable. In simple truth, an actual conservative would have a hard time coming to grips with Obama. The entire Democratic/progressive/media machine is primed to annihilate such a candidate, who would spend all of this time defending himself with no chance to strike at Obama. Under these less-than-perfect circumstances, Mitt Romney is as close to a perfect candidate as we are going to get.

So let us put away all thoughts of strife and disagreement. All wishful thinking and illusions. The real world beckons. There is no place for the ideal in this conflict. We will have other and better opportunities. For good or ill, Romney is the man of the hour. The only thing of importance is to defeat Obama and everything he stands for. The polls, the shifting attitudes of the country as a whole, and the stark fear arising among the progressives suggest that Romney can do the job. Lets us gird our loins and go amongst them.

J.R. Dunn is consulting editor of American Thinker.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/mitt_romney_will_do_just_fine_thank-you.html#ixzz1uBqolk9O

mountainaires on May 7, 2012 at 9:32 AM