Obama's Top Strategy for 2012: Attack Romney

President's campaign prepares to paint him as 'weird' and greedy: Politico
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 9, 2011 12:10 PM CDT
President Obama's 2012 Campaign Prepares Full-Fledged Attack on Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop in Los Angeles last month.   (Getty Images)

If Politico has it right, team Obama not only expects Mitt Romney to be the GOP nominee, it is ready to unleash a "ferocious personal assault" against him. The go-negative approach would have two fronts: portray Romney as a "weird" guy out of touch with ordinary people and as a greedy CEO willing to sacrifice jobs. For guidance, it will model its strategy in part on the one George W. Bush used in depicting John Kerry as an aloof rich guy.

As Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin explain, the Obama camp figures that a nasty campaign will be a necessity because of the economy. "The candidate who ran on 'hope' in 2008 has little choice four years later but to run a slashing, personal campaign aimed at disqualifying his likeliest opponent," they write. The story already has generated a response from the Romney camp blasting the approach, notes New York's Daily Intel, as well as a Democratic response to that response. (More President Obama stories.)

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