Merciless work by the RNC, which is rapidly putting to rest previous -- and largely misunderstood -- whispers that they'd be pulling punches against the president during an election year:
Even as an ardent Obama opponent, I half cringe while watching these sorts of clips; witnessing an elected official hang himself politically with his own rhetorical rope is, well, wince-inducing. Double kudos are in order for the inclusion of several instant Obama classics, including his "string of bad luck" howler (although noted historian Joe Biden probably believes this administration's historical headwinds have been historically treacherous), his baffling whinging about ATMs, and his truly ballsy attempt to sidestep blame for the Solyndra debacle. I'd also add his pitiful slap at Fox News following the Democrats' 2010 drubbing. As for the president's "worst recession since the Great Depression" trope, Mitt Romney has fashioned a clever reply to this point. He readily cedes the point that President Obama did not create the mess he inherited -- although his milieu undeniably contributed to it -- but goes on to assert that he's bungled his response with an unforgivable lack of focus and fatally flawed policies, resulting in a more sustained downturn. It's that precise record that drains much credibility from, for example, Tim Geithner's claim that the administration's economic record has been "remarkably successful." Average voters will scoff at that notion. Former Bush adviser Pete Wehner writes in the Weekly Standard that Republicans ought to "relentlessly" expose the president's untrustworthiness through a robust program of fact-checking and timely flashbacks to his previous statements:
What is required when dealing with a man who habitually deconstructs truth is to destroy his public credibility. Voters need to be shown that Obama’s words and claims are, quite literally, unbelievable, whether they have to do with the past or the future, himself or others. That can be done in a manner that is tough-minded but not mean-spirited?—?by referring to the public record of Obama’s counterfeit charges and broken promises, which are now sufficiently numerous that they could fill the Library of Congress...
In ads and speeches, during interviews and through the use of surrogates, Romney and his party need to prosecute their case relentlessly. They need to imprint into the mind of voters a basic proposition: Barack Obama’s claims are worthless. They need to accomplish this with an avalanche of facts and by using Obama’s own words against him. The effect will be that Americans will appropriately devalue the president’s words. They will, in increasing numbers, reject his claims because they do not trust the source of the claims. This approach relies on a truth as old as the Scriptures, which teach that fresh water and salt water cannot flow from the same spring.
Given his advice, I suspect Pete would applaud the video mash-up above. I'll leave you with an infamous declaration from the president's Treasury Secretary, delivered one year ago, this week:
Credibility.
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