Yesterday, I urged the Romney campaign to go on "aggressive, sustained offense" over Medicare. Not only is the bipartisan Romney-Ryan plan to save the social safety net and control the national debt entirely defensible, President Obama's previous actions and current non-plan are eminently assailable. Today, Team Romney has demonstrated that it is fully prepared to throw a hard punch. Up next? Sustain it. This is excellent:
Every statement in this ad is factually accurate. I'm told it will air across numerous swing states in "strong rotation." (Unspoken, but obvious: Florida.) The truth is that Barack Obama slashed more than $700 Billion from Medicare to pay for part of Obamacare -- an unpopular program that is making things worse. Paul Ryan sat down for an interview with Fox News' Brit Hume earlier, and Hume asked the GOP Veep if he believes the Republican ticket can win the Medicare fight. Ryan's answer? "Absolutely." Keep in mind that this strong opening salvo doesn't even touch the Medicare rationing board created by Obamacare, nor does it address the emotional issue of Paul Ryan's mother. In other words, there's a lot of golden, factual material left to use. Yuval Levin thinks Democrats may have gotten sand-bagged in this debate:
I don’t think Axelrod and Maddow were just setting out to lie exactly — it’s worse than that. Listening to them, it seemed as if they really hadn’t realized until now the situation they were in. They’re used to a certain order of things on Medicare and have not stopped to grasp what Obamacare has done to them. They assume it must be true that Republicans want to cut benefits and Democrats want to preserve them. But it’s not true, not anymore. You could see that panicked realization slowly rising in Maddow’s eyes as she was pressed. What she was probably recognizing was this: Obamacare changed everything. In the wake of that law, it is now clearer than it ever could have been before that the market solution is also the best one for seniors — that the conservative approach that would dramatically reduce the deficit is also the one that would avoid any disruptions for current beneficiaries and the one that would save Medicare in the longer run without shifting costs to future beneficiaries. And the Left can’t claim any of those benefits for its own approach to Medicare.
But didn't David Axelrod claim that the $700 Billion Medicare cut was a "lie" being foisted on the public by Republicans? Wouldn't that invalidate the Romney ad's veracity? It would, if he were right -- but he's wrong. Don't ask me. Ask...Barack Obama:
More on this clip tomorrow. This is huge.