ICYMI: GOP’s Election Battle Plan: Use Obama’s Own Words Against Him

Excerpts from The Washington Post
By Peter Wallsten
January 1, 2012
 
“With Republican voters in Iowa set to finally begin picking a nominee to challenge President Obama, GOP officials in Washington are quietly and methodically finishing what operatives are calling ‘the book’ — 500 pages of Obama quotes and video links that will form the backbone of the party’s attack strategy against the president leading up to Election Day 2012.
“The document, portions of which were reviewed by The Washington Post, lays out how GOP officials plan to use Obama’s words and voice as they build an argument for his defeat: that he made specific promises and entered office with lofty expectations and has failed to deliver on both.
“Republican officials say they will leverage the party’s newly catalogued video library containing every publicly available utterance from Obama since his 2008 campaign. Television and Internet ads will juxtapose specific Obama promises of job gains, homeowner assistance, help for people in poverty, lower health insurance premiums and stricter White House ethics standards against government data and news clippings that paint a different reality.
“The decision by GOP officials to finalize a strategy at this stage underscores the view, in both parties, that the general election campaign has begun  — even if an official Republican nominee has not been selected.
“The new GOP playbook is designed to take one of Obama’s great assets — the power of his oratory — and turn it into a liability. It details hundreds of potential targets, partially a result of a president who Republican strategists say is unusually prone to making detailed promises. 
“‘That’s a clip the American people will hear and see over and over and over again throughout the next year,’ said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. ‘The nice thing about Barack Obama is that he’s given us plenty of material. The one thing he loves to do is give speeches’…
“GOP officials are set to roll out new attacks in the coming days, starting Tuesday on caucus day in Iowa with a new video showing clips from Obama’s victory speech there four years ago. The RNC will buy TV ad time in select battleground-state markets within weeks…
“Still, party officials believe many independent voters — more than eight in 10 of whom believe the country is on the wrong track, according to a November Washington Post-ABC News poll — are ready to accept the premise that Obama didn’t work out. Officials said they settled on the plan to use the president’s own words after examining private and public polls showing that the approach resonated with swing voters nationally and in key battlegrounds…
“‘Because the president remains personally well liked, [the GOP strategy] is a good way to not have to swim against that tide,’ said Ed Gillespie, a former RNC chairman who is in regular contact with senior party officials. ‘It’s his own words.’
“The RNC’s Obama book reflects a number of technology developments since the last campaign, such as video archives that are searchable by keyword. It has been collected in part by a team of staff members and interns who spend each day in a windowless room on the RNC’s ground floor, staring at a dozen flat-screen TVs and monitoring the Web…
“The new book contains more than a dozen chapters, including a 73-page section titled ‘The Obama Economy,’ and has separate chapters logging local-level campaign promises delivered during stops in places such as Scranton, Pa., Denver and Cleveland.
“When Obama heads out on the campaign trail, officials will use the newly compiled quotes and data to put in place a full-scale mobilization, including videos, op-eds in local papers, calls with local media and appearances by local GOP supporters all designed to highlight the president’s past statements in each locale, said Sean Spicer, the RNC’s spokesman. Promises relating to the Hispanic community will be fed to Hispanic bloggers and media.
“‘He made so many promises in so many places,’ Spicer said. ‘The goal is whenever he does an interview in Scranton, Columbus, Ames, Cleveland or wherever, that every local reporter, blogger and concerned citizen says, ‘Hey, we’re armed here with information about the last time you were here, and we want you to answer to yourself.’
“The strategy can be seen in several Internet ads produced by the party in recent weeks.
“A video titled ‘Failed Promises: Scranton’ was released in November to coincide with an Obama visit to the northeastern Pennsylvania city. It shows Obama speaking about jobs and the economy, his face depicted through shattered windows of an abandoned factory as job-loss stats flash across the screen.
“Another RNC ad, ‘It’s Been Three Years,’ shows Obama as a candidate saying the ‘real question’ is whether Americans would be better off in four years. Then it shows a clip from an October ABC interview when he tells George Stephanopoulos that ‘I don’t think they’re better off than they were four years ago.’
“The spot ends with Obama the 2008 candidate drawing roaring applause when he proclaims: ‘This country can’t take four more years of the same failed policies. It’s time to try something new.’
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