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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Politics: Obama Winning Ugly

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Politics
Obama Winning Ugly
Mitt Romney hopes voters are disappointed that Obama 2012 is nothing like Obama 2008.
By John Dickerson
Posted Monday, Jul 16, 2012, at 11:42 PM ET

If Barack Obama wins this election, he's going to win ugly. Job creation is anemic, voters think the country is going in the wrong direction, and the president has been unable to convince them otherwise. So, the path is clear: Destroy your opponent and pander to your base. Obama Wan Kenobi, it's your only hope. 

This has been obvious for months. It was clear, at the very least, from the president's campaign kick-off back in May. What's new is that Mitt Romney's campaign is trying to make something of it. In a recent series of ads and television appearances, the Republican challenger argues that the president has discarded the high-minded principles of his 2008 campaign to keep the White House at any cost. Obama promised to lift the nation above petty sniping and political game-playing, and now he's doing exactly what he decried. The latest Romney ad called "Hope and Change?" starts with CBS's Bob Schieffer asking David Axelrod, "What ever happened to hope and change?" 

Do people really care about the niceties of campaigning? They don't like politicians. They expect them to say one thing and do another. Why would they be surprised when one of them is behaving exactly as they'd expect—especially when the other candidate is doing the same thing as well? 

The Romney campaign is hoping that Barack Obama is a special case. In 2008, Barack Obama was supposed to be different. He ran his campaign ...

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