Biden's Radical Nominee Takes Another Hit From Law Enforcement
Woman Records Very Creepy Visit by the FBI
Joe Biden Is Hitting His Political 'Life Alert' Button With This 2024 Move
South Carolina's Mysterious Bank Account That Has Over $1 Billion in It
Occupied Gaza
Biden Administration Locking Up Public Lands from West to East
Baltimore Mayor Raises Eyebrows Over What He Claims Is His 'Purpose in Life'
Only Democrats Get to Lie on NBC News
Donald Trump: The Non-PC Candidate
Ronald Reagan: The Man Who Cut Taxes From 70 to 28 Percent
Republicans Thwart Democrat Scheme to Raise Gas Prices
The Future Looks...Old?
Not Exactly Something Normal
Senate Judiciary Committee Should Prioritize Main Street Over Wall Street with Free Market...
Some Unpleasant Truths About Islam and the West
OPINION

The Battle of the Buzzwords, 2012

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Presidential campaigns often reduce themselves to words or phrases, slogans or gaffes.

These fragments actually represent much more than the specific words employed, but very often condense enormous themes, important differences or character issues into a compact but complete message package. Five examples of years defined by a few words:

Advertisement

1976: Poland is free. (President Gerald Ford actually said in his famous debate gaffe "There is no Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe.")

1980: "Are you better off today..." Misery Index and "There you go again."

1992: "It's the economy stupid."

2000: Compassionate conservatism

2008: Hope and change

The message set developing for 2012 does not favor the president. Here's a word, or two or three, which conveys much about the state of the country and the quality of the president's leadership:

Obamacare

Stimulus

Debt and deficit

Unemployment rate

Price of gas

Keystone

The Gulf oil spill

EPA

Solyndra

Fast and Furious

Boeing

Gibson Guitar

GSA

Secret Service

Netanyahu in the basement

Flexibility

When Governor Romney says just those words, or even one of them, the audience will instantly know what he is intending them to think through. Each of these words or phrases conveys a long tale of incompetence, combining into a fiasco of a presidency for which no cure is at hand, and which cannot be defended.

Advertisement

So the president is attacking, trying to fashion new messages to gin up his troops.

Appeals about 'the 1%," the "Buffett Rule," Bain and silver spoons, and of course "Bin Laden" will fill every presidential speech between now.

But it won't work because the reality of the president's three-plus years is everywhere around us, easily communicated and impossible to deny.

Imagine the captain of the Titanic as the ship shudders and begins to sink complaining about the seamanship of the rescue boat pilots.

There you have President Obama as Campaign 2012 gets underway.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos