GOP feeling confident about Romney's Medicare gamble

“Republicans never, ever, ever have nor will win the Medicare argument,” says a well-connected Democratic strategist who is not part of the Obama campaign. “The Romney people feel they’re clever, they test arguments and the argument works, so they use them. But what they don’t do is take the second step and look and check whether it conflicts with people’s ingrained ideas.”

In other words, when it comes time to vote, Democrats and independents will never fully accept that it is Republicans who would truly “preserve and protect Medicare.” And Democrats win the issue again…

Ayres doesn’t dispute that voters have long-held views of the political parties and Medicare. “But just because they’re long-ingrained impressions doesn’t mean they’re immutable and unchangeable,” Ayres says. “We’ve never had a Democratic president who has taken $716 billion out of Medicare to spend on another program. That will get people’s attention. So yes, there are long-ingrained impressions, but that doesn’t mean they cannot be changed with a lot of focus and a lot of attention. But it’s got to be sincere; it can’t be a bunch of rhetoric. And it will take time.”