Obama's New Message: Same As The Old Message
Pres. Obama hit the campaign trail yesterday with a new stump speech aimed at creating a clear contrast between Dems and the GOP, signaling what is ostensibly a new chapter in Dem efforts to create a choice election.
But while the speech is new, Obama's message is remarkably similar to one he's pitched before. And while characterizing the '08 election as a choice worked brilliantly for Obama himself, making later contests into choices hasn't worked out so well for Dem candidates.
"You have a choice in this election," Obama said Thursday at a rally for Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid. "There is a real choice here. We know how the movie ends if the other party is in charge. You don't have to guess how they'll govern because we're still living with the damage from the last time they were governing. And they're singing from the same hymnal. They haven't changed. They want to do the same stuff."
Obama has used the same language as he stumps for other Dems across the country -- Dems like ex-NJ Gov. Jon Corzine, VA state Sen. Creigh Deeds and MA AG Martha Coakley, all of whom lost their races in '09 and early '10.
"We've been there, we've done that. What Martha's opponent is preaching we've already tried. And it didn't work," Obama said in a Jan. 17 appearance with Coakley at Northeastern Univ. in Boston. "So understand what's at stake here, Massachusetts: It's whether we're going forward, or going backwards."
"We don't need politicians who say we should go back to the policies of yesteryear, when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place," Obama said at a rally for Deeds in Norfolk, VA, just before the election. "We've had enough of those kind of politicians. We got a whole bunch of those in Washington, D.C."
Far from being a new tactic, Dems have long acknowledged the need to make the midterms a choice between the 2 parties, rather than a referendum. Voters are still angry at DC, and Obama's approval ratings have fallen below 50% in many surveys; given the close correlation between a president's approval rating and his party's fortunes in a midterm, that should be troubling for Dems seeking re-election this year.
"With history against them and a recession to boot, [Democrats] would be foolish to nationalize the election," Dem strategist Paul Begala told Hotline OnCall in an email for a story in this week's National Journal. "As David Axelrod keeps telling anyone who will listen, this needs to be a choice, not a referendum."
Obama's stops in MO and NV proved lucrative for both contenders. He raised at least $500K for MO Sec/State Robin Carnahan (D), who is running neck and neck with Rep. Roy Blunt (R) in public polls. And he pulled in about $800K for Reid's campaign against ex-Assemb. Sharron Angle (R). But beyond filling his candidates' coffers, GOPers watching Obama's campaign tactics aren't seeing anything new.
"Instead of repackaging the same partisan attacks that have failed in the past and trying to bill it as something new, the Obama White House would be well-advised to try road-testing some new economic policies," jeered NRSC communications director Brian Walsh. "Because as the unemployment hovers close to double digits, and stands at 14% in Nevada alone, the Democrats' policies, just like their message, is clearly not working."
"New" deserves the scare quote treatment. Obama and his speech writers have been rearranging magnets on the fridge since he began running for the White House.
Aside from tedious repetition Obama has one persistent messaging problem, regardless of the issue at hand:
Like Howard "Where-Is-He-Now" Dean, when Obama's got a live audience, he works the room, throwing partisan punches, making jokes at Republican expense, and clearly thriving on applause. That sympathetic bubble looks very different from the outside now.
Mr. Nice Guy disappears when Obama, "looking" Presidential, speaks to the cameras in DC. The permanent campaign goes stiff and stern, but he's still just working the Democratic room. He's running full bore against the Republican political establishment 24/7, but he's really insulting half the country almost every time he addresses the nation.
Sometimes it seems that Obama has become one of the Circle W Cowboys these daze.