The RNC is out with a new video this morning called “From ‘Hope’ to Hypocrisy.” It hints at the GOP’s new general election campaign message — which was revealed to an even larger extent in a memo recently authored by the RNC’s communications director Sean Spicer:
We will work relentlessly to expose Barack Obama’s broken promises and hypocrisy. In the coming months you will see us drive this message on all fronts–advertising, web videos, social media, mobile technology, rapid response, blog posts, opinion pieces, grassroots outreach, and more. Voters will not be duped again.
In short, the GOP’s message to voters seems to be: “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” This is a fair line of attack as it holds Obama to the standards that he, himself, pledged to live up to.
In 2008, of course, Obama ran on an optimistic message of hope and change. As Chris Cillizza noted, “Obama promised from the start to run a different sort of campaign, one based more on his telling voters about his own positive vision for the country rather than peddling negative details about his opponents.”
This time around, however, the plan — for a long time, now — has been to destroy Mitt Romney.
That, itself, is notable. But what is more, many of the negative attacks haven’t been substantive; they’ve been especially petty. Take for example, the DNC’s #LOLmitt hashtag. Real classy stuff. Meanwhile, President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod has taken to Twitter to mock Romney’s “skinny jeans” — and to talk about dog crates. And Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina has used his Twitter account to mock Romney’s use of the term, “y’all.”
Elevated rhetoric? Forget about it. It ain’t Lincoln-Douglas.
Hope and change this is not.
