Video: Why breaking up is not so hard to do

The RNC has a new ad out now that follows up one of the most prominent themes from last week’s Republican convention with a new 30-second TV spot aimed at former Obama voters.  Titled “The Breakup,” the ad features one of my good friends, Bettina Inclan, who works for the RNC on Hispanic outreach.  I’ve known Bettina for years, and believe me, when she tells you, “It’s not me … it’s you,” it really is you (via ConservativeByte):

This is the extension of the less-satirical effort at the Republican convention to reach out to former Obama voters.  The tight message discipline produced a series of softer pitches aimed at voters in the center, offering understanding about how Barack Obama may have inspired them in 2008 and promised them a new direction for America and its politics.  The pitch (and the message discipline) produced a reasonable tone and approach, one that tended to ask for unity rather than make a strident base-appeal pitch.  Some conservatives felt disappointed at the lack of red-meat rhetoric aimed at Obama, but the strategy was deliberate.

In contrast, the first two nights of the Democratic Convention continually featured strident speeches delivered at the shout level.  Despite the relatively cozy venue, speaker after speaker in the last two nights felt the need to yell into the microphone, apparently attempting to generate enthusiasm from the delegates present.  That might be effective at the Time Warner center in Charlotte, but on television, it comes across much differently — as though Democrats think that they’re more believable because they’ve raised their voices.  And if the enthusiasm level of convention delegates is a worry for Democrats, then they’re really in trouble.

And it’s not just the vocal levels, either.  Margaret Carlson has become the latest on the Left to wonder whether Abortion-Palooza is turning off more people than it’s inspiring:

I hate to bring up abortion during the Democrats’ festivities, which are going so swimmingly, but I have a question.

Why has the party removed the sentence “Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare” from its platform? It was in the 2004 document but not in 2008’s or this year’s. Can’t Democrats just throw a crumb to the many millions who are pro-choice but not pro-abortion?

Last week, Democrats feasted on the extreme positions of Representative Todd Akin of Missouri (and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, for that matter) during the Republican National Convention. Yet Democrats have gone too far in the other direction, threatening their hold on the great American middle. Speaking Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich pushed the issue, claiming, “The president of the United States voted three times to protect the right of doctors to kill babies who came out of an abortion still alive” and arguing that the Democratic platform supports “partial-birth abortion.”

Abortion is a more delicate subject than our fierce, partisan arguments would have it. If you scroll backward, an intimate act (a horrible one in cases of rape or incest) occurred and a woman is pregnant. Most people outside partisan bubbles don’t like to talk, much less scream, about such things.

Matt Lewis e-mailed his former AOL colleague Melinda Henneberger, a pro-life liberal, about her take on the convention after the first night:

I have NEVER heard this much about abortion as in that hall last night, even if you throw in every homily of my life.  Every other event is sponsored by [Planned Parenthood] or EMILY’s List. Then I moderated a panel for the outnumbered but undaunted pro-life [Democrats], where the panelists were asked by Salon what’s not to love about abortefacients and by Red State how come they like the infanticide president so much. America is evenly divided on this issue, but are ANY swing voters watching speech after convention speech? (Bold mine.)

Why should swing voters tune into it?  The agenda clearly doesn’t address them or their priorities.  Even if they do flip to C-SPAN to check out the activities, they’re greeted by shouted speeches and an unrelenting focus on an issue that’s not within their priority set for this election at all.  If Republicans had employed this kind of tone at their convention, the press reports would have been filled with references to “angry Republicans.”

The entire Democratic convention has become a primal scream on abortion and contraception.  Don’t be surprised if swing voters feel repelled by the spectacle.  They may be breaking up with more than just Obama by the end of this week.

• Bobby Jindal: Paternalistic, big-government liberalism is the biggest loser here
• Chris Christie: “I’ll be here to welcome” Obama when he comes to tour the NJ coast again next week
• MSNBC consensus: Obama’s speech was historic, amazing, “one of the best of his presidency”

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