Obama's Shift to Left Will Lose Swing Voters

It's a 'politically dumb' strategy: Karl Rove
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 29, 2011 10:15 AM CDT
Obama's Shift to Left Will Lose Swing Voters
President Obama is silhouetted on stage after speaking at Abraham Lincoln High School Tuesday in Denver.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Obama has begun dishing out "red meat" to the Democratic base, thrilling "left-wing activists and donors." The problem for the White House, writes Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal, is that the move is "politically dumb." Yes, the strategy will shore up Obama's support among Democrats, but they would have voted for him anyway. By going ultra-partisan and abandoning the idealistic Obama of old, the president risks losing the all-important independents and swing voters he'll need for re-election.

"Accusing political opponents of being un-American and engaging in class warfare to push trillions in tax increases are not the messages Mr. Obama needs to win back those who decided the last presidential election in his favor and will determine the outcome of the next," writes Rove. Further, Obama's "red-hot rhetoric" will come back to haunt him next fall, when his campaign tacks to the center: "Republicans will be sure (it's) not forgotten," Rove says. Click for the full column here. (More President Obama stories.)

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