This morning in a campaign speech Mitt Romney said “We have a president, who I think is is a nice guy, but he spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps.”
There’s just one problem, Romney also went to Harvard. In fact, he got both his JD (same as Obama) plus an MBA at Harvard, so he spent a year more time there than Obama did.
Sheesh.
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Oh, sure, but Romney spent the exact amount of time or less at Harvard as is necessary to avoid having spent ‘too much’ time at Harvard.
Seriously, though, what he really means is that Obama was too busy attending classes while Romney was slapping asses in a frat house on campus.
Actually, I really think Romney honestly believes that his supporters have no idea where he went to college. I also believe that he is absolutely right.
Actually, I take all of that back. What’s clearly going on here is the classic Republican play called, “Take whatever it is you do, lie and say the other guy does it, and make it sound bad.”
I really don’t know why this works, but they just keep doing it. And honestly, if someone can find an example of Democrats using this tactic, by all means, post it.
From Taegan’s Political Wire:
April 04, 2012
The “I’m Rubber, You’re Glue” Strategy
Benjy Sarlin: “Running President Bush’s campaigns, Karl Rove became famous for taking his opponent’s single biggest strength and turning it into his biggest weakness. Mitt Romney is laying out another approach: taking his own top vulnerabilities and projecting them onto his opponent.”
He did it in a speech today: “Name an accusation Obama and Democrats have used against Romney, and chances are you heard the same charge leveled against Obama in Romney’s speech.”
Steve Benen: “It’s a basic idea we’ve all seen many times. A politician and his or her team identify their biggest weaknesses and then start accusing their their rival of being guilty of that same thing. Mitt Romney seems eager to perfect this technique.”
Candidate Romney is already so mucklemouthed that I’m not sure anyone really listens to what he says anyway, aside from a humour standpoint. It’s like Miss Othmar–or any adult–from the Charlie Brown cartoons. Just loud honking that we have to get through so that we can go about our business.
Sorry, meant to provide a link to that excellent site. Here it is:
Teagan’s Political Wire
CGE I think your third point in your first post is spot on. The people voting for Romney who aren’t superwealthy(for whom voting for Romney makes sense financially) just won’t take critical looks at what he is saying. At this point I believe Romney, and many other Republicans, have figured out that you can bluster your way through the facts to smear your opponents for things that aren’t even bad.
“Ha, yeah, this guy over here, spent way too much time at an Ivy League university getting a top-tier education. No way he should be allowed to lead… By the way, I went to Harvard, so I am totally qualified to lead.”
A Democrat was helping me do work yesterday. “I don’t like Obama,” he said. “Did you see him on TV the other day? He was smearing all sorts of people.” “oh, that’s right, you don’t have a TV.”
I then read “women support Obama with a double digit lead over Romney.” So it isn’t what they say or do, it is “who is the most charismatic?” This person helping me is a white male. The white male is the only group where the majority doesn’t support Obama. They resist the charisma.
Reagan was an actor. He didn’t know anything about running a government in California or the USA, but he did know how to act.
For Obama, I feel the charisma is real and that he can run a government.