G.O.P. ‘Super PAC’ Weighs Hard-Line Attack on Obama

[brooklynite]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — A group of high-profile Republican strategists is working with a conservative billionaire on a proposal to mount one of the most provocative campaigns of the “super PAC” era and attack President Obama in ways that Republicans have so far shied away from.

Timed to upend the Democratic National Convention in September, the plan would “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,” the strategists wrote.

The plan, which is awaiting approval, calls for running commercials linking Mr. Obama to incendiary comments by his former spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose race-related sermons made him a highly charged figure in the 2008 campaign.

“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/us/politics/gop-super-pac-weighs-hard-line-attack-on-obama.html?_r=1&hp

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For a President with high personal likability, this would be an insane tactic to launch at a time when Romney will be attempting to appeal to moderates and independents. If Romney were smart, and wanted to distance himself from the Tea Party wing, he would forcefully speak out against this campaign.

I'll wait and see...

[goclark]

1. K and R

[get the red out]

2. "if Romney were smart"

Enough said.

[mucifer]

3. A little FYI Joe Ricketts is the father of the siblings who own the Chicago Cubs.

[blm]

4. Boycott the hell out of everything the Ricketts family owns. And don't let up.

.

[safeinOhio]

5. Watch out Mitt,

allowing other to throw so many rocks, when you live in a bunch of glass houses.

[democrat_patriot]

6. Rev Wright is a bit 2008 dontcha tink?

I know 90% of the MS will fall in line though...

Super-smart-pundit: "How bad does Wright hurt Obama's chances?"

GOP guest #12: "Oh man - this is a game changer! Obama is in serious trouble as 'most' polls show".

SSP: "Poor President Obama. And now our new segment 'How will a Romney Presidency save America!'"

[OmahaBlueDog]

7. Wright is old news.

What this strategy really would be aimed at is firing up evangelicals who are tepid in their support for Romney. OTOH, it could blow back in as much as it could raise questions about Romney's own LDS faith -- which has some qualities that many people find "odd."

[Kencorburn]

10. Like the one where if a white man has sex with a black woman,

he will fall instantly.(Yet we still have Robert De Niro)
"Mullatoes" Bringham Young's word, not mine, are like mules they can't reproduce.(Yet we have Sasha and Malia)
There are so many more, I could go on forever since they decided to keeps records of everything their crazy leader said.

[Kencorburn]

8. They would be absolutely insane if they opened any conversation about religion.

To break the seal on talk about religion would expose some core beliefs of the LDS church that run counter to, or more precisely, heretical to most evangelical Christians. I would love to see them try this. Considering Obama's and Romney's respective positions in their churches, for Obama, a former member of a standalone church, and for Romney a high ranking member of the clergy of a world-wide entity. Romney's albatross would be much heavier.

[Andy823]

15. I agree

One thing Romney doesn't want to do is have to start explaining his religious beliefs and defend the way Mormons are different from the main stream religions. It would open up the "cult" label that other religions have put on the Mormons and then look out, it would be open season and Romney would be in one hell of a position trying to explain things.

[cindyperry2010]

9. Really they are going to try that

TIRED OLD SHIT? then mormonism should be on the table

[MatthewStLouis]

11. Moderates will be turned off by such ads. It's like calling Obama a socialist.

Reasonable people know he isn't one. How could one not roll your eyes at such ads? I say, let them waste their money on over-the-top BS.

Slightly off topic, the Reverend Wright thing surprises me. We have a friend, an MD who doesn't pay much attention to politics, who swears Obama is a Muslim. He says his right wing catholic wife thinks Obama is much scarier than the Mormon RMoney for this reason. Why do they want to remind people Obama attended Reverend Wright's Christian church after spending so much effort making him out to be a Muslim?

[earthside]

12. Danger! It's about driving down turnout.

My prediction is that there will be several 'super PAC' attacks like this between this summer and November.

To focus on the specific theme of the attacks will be to miss the strategic aim: drive down voter turnout by making the entire 2012 election season so dirty, negative, and demoralizing that marginal voters (who tend to vote Democratic) throw-up their hands and stay home in disgust.

The likes of this Ricketts effort won't be so much to persuade voters to change their minds about Barack Obama and consequently vote against him, but to provoke a response and initiate lots of discussion and debate in the mainstream media that lowers the level of the political discourse into the gutter.

The rightwing extremists and reactionaries know that they don't have a majority of potential voters on their side, so they have to do what they can to shrink potential Obama voters so that they have a chance with their hardcore voters.

I'm not sure how the Obama campaign should respond to these kinds of efforts ... to respond too vigorously only heats-up and extends the mud-throwing, which is exactly the goal of this kind of super PAC effort. And you know how the mainstream news media loves any kind of issue-free, horserace controversy of this sort.

I think the reactionary, corporate super PACs know exactly what they are doing and the Rmoney campaign knows exactly what they are supposed to do --- and this is why the consequences of Citizens United is going to possibly have a huge effect on the November outcome.

[groundloop]

13. Another side effect of driving down turnout - Congressional seats

I believe your analysis is correct. Even if the r/w can't lie Rmoney into the White House, by driving down voter turnout they'll be able to pick up some House and maybe Senate seats that they otherwise wouldn't have.

[stubtoe]

14. This is going to get insanely ugly. They're going to "go there" - racism.

They'll use Jeremiah Wright as the putative target, but everyone will know who they're really talking about.

[Mz Pip]

16. They beat that horse to death in 2008

Turning up the volume on it won't make it anymore successful this time around.

[DallasNE]

17. Of Course Romney Will Green Light This

Where John McCain wouldn't. Romney has no compunction against lying -- the bigger the better -- he takes much credit for the auto bailout success, after all.

Joe Ricketts son ran against Sen. Ben Nelson 6 years ago and got his butt kicked but good because Ricketts ran a rotten campaign. Not sure poppa Ricketts learned any lessons from that. Also, a lot of the Ricketts money was used in the deal to buy the Chicago Cubs so his disposable income pockets isn't quite so deep as it once was.

[denvine]

18. Small, but a message anyway!

I just transferred and closed my TDAmeritrade IRA, because of this article. Thanks for posting. No matter how small, we can still speak with our money.

[brooklynite]

19. UPDATE - Obama campaign responds

Talking Points Memo:

The Obama campaign released a statement from campaign manager Jim Messina on the story about plans to use Rev. Jeremiah Wright to attack President Obama. Messina claims that in failing to personally condemn the attack, Mitt Romney shied from exerting the “moral leadership” required of the moment.

Here’s the full statement:

“This morning’s story revealed the appalling lengths to which Republican operatives and SuperPacs apparently are willing to go to tear down the President and elect Mitt Romney. The blueprint for a hate-filled, divisive campaign of character assassination speaks for itself. It also reflects how far the party has drifted in four short years since John McCain rejected these very tactics. Once again, Governor Romney has fallen short of the standard that John McCain set, reacting tepidly in a moment that required moral leadership in standing up to the very extreme wing of his own party.”

[stubtoe]

20. Good. Very good counter. Didn't waste any time either. Good.

[elleng]

22. Good

[elleng]

21. As noted elsewhere, this will open the door to rmoney's Mormonism,

which he probably doesn't want to enter into the 'debate,' but his monied 'friends' don't care.

POTUS won't step into the Mormon stuff, but other public figures and/or talking heads surely will. Its NOT a win for repugs.

[and-justice-for-all]

23. LOL, pulling bunk crap out from the back of the closet!!!

what losers!!!

Ricketts? A bone disease seen mostly in children, caused by a deficiency of vitamin D, usually as a result of inadequate dietary intake or lack of exposure to sunlight. This deficiency causes decreased calcium absorption from the intestine and abnormalities in formation and mineralization of skeletal bone, resulting in defective bone growth and deformity.

Willard (Magical Underwear) Rmoney.

[L0oniX]

24. Nothing new here folks ...same ol low IQ tea bagger shit.

[Dawson Leery]

25. Conceding the right has nothing else to run on.

[BigD_95]

26. Mitt will hide from it!

He will by law he cant speak with the super pacs and cant stop them. Then he takes no heat & the damage is done. We seen this too many times.

We need to fight fire with fire because negative ads work. We need to bash Mitt & scare Christians on what the Mormon religion is about. I heard there is some crazy beliefs that Christians will freak if they knew.