President Obama’s Words: RNC Weapon of Choice in 2012
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On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, the Republican National Committee is touting an expansive new video database that party operatives say is their most potent weapon for attacking President Obama in 2012.
The electronic catalogue, which RNC officials describe as “The Book,” is a searchable trove of “every utterance” from Obama – including hundreds of pages of quotes, video clips and data points documenting the entirety of the president’s first term.
It will provide fodder for an expected onslaught of video attacks in the months ahead, officials said.
“It’s a virtual Lexis-Nexis [database] for a Republican campaign going after a Democrat,” said RNC communications director Sean Spicer. “We have everything he has done and said catalogued six ways to Sunday.”
While presidential campaigns have long amassed opposition research and sought to use an opponent’s words against him, Spicer said the latest iteration is groundbreaking in its efficiency and specificity, thanks in part to the president himself.
“We’re in a unique place this cycle, unlike any other cycle, because Obama made very specific promises in very specific locations,” Spicer said. “A lot of times candidates speak in platitudes, and you can argue those facts back and forth all day long. But Obama has said very specific stuff on the campaign trail and in office.”
The RNC will debut a compilation of Obama clips from the newly polished video library in a TV ad to run across Iowa on Tuesday. The montage is expected to show “promises” Obama delivered in Iowa in 2008 contrasted with economic and other data on the reality now.
One example from the RNC’s trove: Obama’s 2009 comment that the Recovery Act would help bring 2 million Americans out of poverty. The file cites census data suggesting more than 6 million Americans joined the ranks of the poor since 2009, instead.
Another page from “The Book” features Obama’s promise to help between 7 and 9 million homeowners refinance their mortgages, coupled with recent reports suggesting fewer than 2 million homeowners were helped under the plan.
Republican strategists say juxtaposing Obama’s words with data on the economy, health care costs and other issues will be the most potent mechanism for winning over crucial independent voters who may like Obama personally but are skeptical about his policies.
“This is not an effective tool – it’s the most effective tool,” said Spicer. “We literally have gone through and looked at this over and over again. Survey after survey, focus group after focus group all say this is the most effective way to bring these folks over to our side.
“It is 100 percent the most effective tool we have,” he added.
Meanwhile, Democrats and the Obama campaign have spent months amassing a similar opposition research database focused largely on the public and private sector record of GOP front-runner Mitt Romney.
They have launched relentless attacks on the Massachusetts governor using his own words in an effort to paint him as a man without a “core” and raise questions about his character – something Republicans have so far signaled they are loathe to do with Obama, given his personal popularity.
Team Obama has also been quietly preparing to mount a vigorous defense of the president’s record against the expected GOP line of attack.
“Four years ago, President Obama said on Iowa caucus night that he would make health care affordable and accessible for all Americans, put a middle class tax cut in the pockets of working Americans, start to free us from our dependence on foreign oil and end the war in Iraq – promises that have been fulfilled,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt in an email.
“He came into office when our economy was hemorrhaging more than 700,000 jobs a month and pulled it back from the brink, and we’ve now had 21 straight months of growth and almost 3 million private sector jobs created,” he said. “He is rebuilding an economy that’s meant to last, not a bubble economy based on paper profits that leaves the middle class behind.”
The RNC database was first reported by Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post, which was given an exclusive preview.
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Posted by: EPU | January 2, 2012, 4:09 pm 4:09 pm
Obam really does not have much to defend his failed policies with. All he has got is this could of happened or that could have happened. No proof that his spending actually did anything but increase the debt.
Posted by: specialty57 | January 2, 2012, 4:14 pm 4:14 pm
Oh good, more attack ads from the Republicans.
Why don’t they run on their own policies? Is it because they were complete failures? Or is it because of ‘what policies?’
Posted by: Bill | January 2, 2012, 4:48 pm 4:48 pm
And yet they are picking Romney as their nominee, someone who has more video of flip flops than a dolphin. They won’t win this way.
Posted by: RNClosers | January 2, 2012, 4:50 pm 4:50 pm
“No proof that his spending actually did anything but increase the debt”
Proof is a rare phenomenon in large scale economics. But those who demand it typically want to ignore all the expert opinion that the stimulus did many things. The CBO and several quite reputable private financial firms all credit the stimulus with saving or creating millions of jobs–possibly holding down unemployment by 2 or 3 points, balancing strapped state budgets [including Rick Perry's Texas], and extending local programs and services.
Posted by: numbers | January 2, 2012, 5:03 pm 5:03 pm
All the Repubs really need to say is, he signed the NDAA and, probably in another couple of months or so, SOPA. I’d vote against any idiot who actually let those things slide across his desk! Regardless of who was running against him.
Posted by: I&A | January 2, 2012, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
ACLU Slams Obama for Signing Defense Bill
Solyndra
lightsquared
fast&furious
MF Global
ALL Scandals that can bring down this Marxist regime
ABC, NBC, CBS continues to run interference for Obama
OBAMA____________VS___________AMERICA
Posted by: Yep I said that | January 2, 2012, 7:53 pm 7:53 pm
Numbers, You can credit the Stimulus Plan with all you want. Except all the promises that Obama made that did not come true (keeping unemployment under 8%). The FACT is the unemployment rate began to escalate dramatically once Obama was elected and investors in our economy fled under the threat of “making the rich pay their fair share”. His policies have restrained the economy. As any “reputable” economist will admit, the economy did not bounce back as it has after every other recession since WWII… OH there is his promise of change.
Posted by: Ionagoal | January 2, 2012, 7:54 pm 7:54 pm
The Republicians know that attack ads, and projecting negativity, works when dealing with an uneducated populace. They’ve fooled many in the middle and lower middle class into voting for them. That, despite the fact that the majority of people who vote Republican will be harmed by having done so.
Posted by: Plantain_11 | January 2, 2012, 8:11 pm 8:11 pm
Posted by: Ionagoal | January 2, 2012, 7:54 pm 7:54 pm
“Except all the promises that Obama made that did not come true (keeping unemployment under 8%)”
That’s a lie – the President did not promise that. You’re lying.
“The FACT is the unemployment rate began to escalate dramatically once Obama was elected”
That’s your second lie. The unemployment rate continued on the dramatic rise that began in 2007 as the housing bubble began to burst and the unregulated banking atrocities began to pile up.
“As early as 2006, top advisers to Mr. Bush dismissed warnings from people inside and outside the White House that housing prices were inflated and that a foreclosure crisis was looming. And when the economy deteriorated, Mr. Bush and his team misdiagnosed the reasons and scope of the downturn . . . Mr. Bush was still calling it a “rough patch.”
The result was a series of piecemeal policy prescriptions that lagged behind the escalating crisis.
“There is no question we did not recognize the severity of the problems,” said Al Hubbard, Mr. Bush’s former chief economics adviser, who left the White House in December 2007. “Had we, we would have attacked them.”
Posted by: David | January 2, 2012, 8:17 pm 8:17 pm
President Obama will win in a LANDSLIDE !
Posted by: dan | January 2, 2012, 8:21 pm 8:21 pm
Republicans have thus far taken Obama quotes out of context for completely false ads.
Posted by: GreggW | January 2, 2012, 8:21 pm 8:21 pm
Posted byYep I said that | January 2, 2012, 7:53 pm 7:53 pm
Nothing you list comes even close to the major Bush Republican intelligence failures on both 9/11 and weapons of mass destruction. Nothing you list comes even close to the $9 Billion ‘misplaced’ by the Bush administration and Halliburton in Iraq. Nothing you list comes even close to criminal acts committed in the White House by Republican Cheney’s chief of staff and the treason of ‘outing’ a CIA officer.
We have not forgotten.
Posted by: Chuck | January 2, 2012, 8:23 pm 8:23 pm
I’ll vote for Mickey Mouse if he ran against this loser of a President. I still giggle to myself to think that Europe gave this fool the Nobel Peace prize…LOOOOL!!!! Obama has made America lose its global position as a world leader…. I feel like Jimmy Carter is about to exit stage left…I only wish we had a Reagan (God bless his soul!!).
Posted by: Army_SF_RET | January 2, 2012, 8:34 pm 8:34 pm
What people don’t understand is the the unemployment rate would be lower if Obama would have let the unemployment limits run out two years ago. Even thought people would still be unemployeed the rate would be lower, that’s how the system works and with most people not knowing this it would look better for Obama not to extend the benefit, yet he decided to extend the unemployment benefit so people without jobs could still have some money coming into their house holds, thus keeping the unemployment number up. President Obama did and is doing what is best for the people suffering from the economy, not what’s best for the rich. No one on this post in rich or wealthy yet don’t understand that the GOP only cares about the rich and wealthy, since the only thing the GOP has done since taking control of the House is protect the wealthy from being taxed.
Posted by: jrpryor1 | January 2, 2012, 8:34 pm 8:34 pm
The January 9, 2009 report “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvesment Act” issued by the President’s Council of Economic Advisors backs up my first “lie”. From June 2003 to April 2008 unemployment went from 6.3 to 4.8%. For all of 2007 it went from 4.6 to 5%.
Posted by: Ionagoal | January 2, 2012, 8:39 pm 8:39 pm
“The Republicons know that attack ads, and projecting negativity, works when dealing with an uneducated populace.”
Fortunately, I don’t think the U.S. education in general is uneducated. Sooner or later they will catch on to the fact that while Romney continues to make claims about his Bains year there is no evidence that Bains helped create net US jobs. In fact, it is likely that more layoffs than jobs were created. Romney tells a lot of Big Lies. He is a phony facing an enthusiasm gap regarding his inevitable nomination. His Republican opponents haven’t been able to fight the Republican establishment, its superPacs and Romney’s millions… but the left will, and independents will sort out the truth. The guy hasn’t created jobs, he is NOT mainstream, he is power hungry and lies and flip flops freely in order to win — he will do anything and say anything.
Posted by: yoLulu | January 2, 2012, 8:42 pm 8:42 pm
Posted by: Army_SF_RET | January 2, 2012, 8:34 pm 8:34 pm
If you wanted to talk ‘losers’ and loss of position in the world you would look directly at the Bush Republican presidency and their massive intelligence failures of 9/11 and weapons of mass destruction.
Posted by: Chuck | January 2, 2012, 8:43 pm 8:43 pm
What about his laws? like the repeal of the bill of rights that occurred on new years eve?
Posted by: Whicket Williams | January 2, 2012, 8:46 pm 8:46 pm
Posted by: Ionagoal | January 2, 2012, 8:39 pm 8:39 pm
You apparently can’t read – the “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvesment Act” report was written before even the final amount of the stimulus was known – and the report specifically cautions against using the numbers in the report as exact or definitive, and clearly points out the reasons why.
So you’re lying on the first count.
The unemployment rate began its steady upward climb from 4.4% in December of 2006 to 6.8% in November of 2008. In the short time from July to November it went up a full 1%.
While Bush was is office, hundreds of thousands of jobs were being lost every month, banks and financial institutions were veering towards insolvency, tens of thousands of small companies were going out of business, two major American automotive companies were headed into bankruptcy.
This is what Bush left President Obama.
Posted by: David | January 2, 2012, 8:52 pm 8:52 pm
Posted by: yoLulu | January 2, 2012, 8:42 pm 8:42 pm
I agree. Far more Americans are paying close attention to politics these days. That is reflected in the all-time low public approval ratings for Congress since the Republicans took the majority in the House.
People are tired of the Republicans and their ‘get elected at any cost to the country’ approach.
Posted by: Chuck | January 2, 2012, 8:54 pm 8:54 pm
All the same stuff Bush was left with, only he brought us out of recession.
Posted by: Ionagoal | January 2, 2012, 8:59 pm 8:59 pm
Posted by: Ionagoal
-Statistical semantics. A self-described rough estimate by a council of advisers is not the same thing as a promise by Obama. If Obama promised unemployment would not go about %8 it will be really easy for you to provide the exact quote….but you will not because he never made it.
And it’s pretty safe to say that almost nobody without a huge preconceived bias believes unemployment would not have fallen as much as it did if John McCain had been elected instead. Those investors fled the collapse and resulting economic contraction, not a fear of higher taxes.
Posted by: numbers | January 2, 2012, 9:03 pm 9:03 pm
That’s unemployment would not go above 8%……..and unemployment would not have jumped as much as it did.
Trying to blame effects of the financial crash like high job losses on Obama is a really weak argument and not much believed by the public.
Posted by: numbers | January 2, 2012, 9:12 pm 9:12 pm
Posted by: Ionagoal | January 2, 2012, 8:59 pm 8:59 pm
Again, you’re wrong . ..
Job losses began under Bush in January of 2001 and those job losses continued until mid-2003 – over 2.5 years of job losses under Bush.
Job losses began again under Bush in the early months of 2008, but Obama had turned this around into job growth by January 2010 – after less than one year in office.
Posted by: Chuck | January 2, 2012, 9:14 pm 9:14 pm
Rumor is, the Republicans are going to let Obama win another term so they can keep bashing him for for 4 more years.
Posted by: Keith | January 2, 2012, 10:07 pm 10:07 pm
Bill Clinton left a budget surplus when he left office, and after 8 years of George “mission accomplished” Bush we are zillions of dollars in debt.
Posted by: ike | January 2, 2012, 11:37 pm 11:37 pm
You can safely bet that every one of those video sound bites will be taken completely out of context.
Posted by: Ed | January 3, 2012, 12:39 am 12:39 am
The people who drove the country into the ditch should get out of the car and push not sit there like mindless lumps and fantasize how this mess is not their fault. They have done nothing to create jobs in this country save hiring a lawyer to go against official policy defending the DOMA act and have destroyed many jobs with their short sighted vision and ignorance of additional costs occuring due to their neglegence cutting essentials for no other reason then to enrich those who do not need it.
Posted by: John Edwar | January 3, 2012, 12:58 am 12:58 am
/wow!! 2000 to 2008 never happened. People brought homes they couldn’t afford, lost their pension have to retire at 72 when most will be dead. Believed in the rich which is gambling on them to die so they will not have collect their SS because they are now living off your fuure income. Call your umemployement a welfare program, call your medicare a welfare program, call your SS a welfare program, when you have paid into it for years its was call FICA. Most people who read and write and understand get all the facts. thats why Civics has been taken out of school. As Hitler said “It is fortunate for the state that the people can not think”.
Posted by: Sandyred | January 3, 2012, 3:18 am 3:18 am
What a LOT of people dont know is allmost every repub voted FOR the house bill that will allow people to be detained !! with out a good reason Obama had his doubts to sign it the real down hill slide started with Bush and the office of homeland security thats a growing monster .
Posted by: jhon | January 3, 2012, 3:35 am 3:35 am
They better get their sh!t togather if they are going to beat Obamma. They need to poole their resources and cover the entire United States to convince the people that if Obmama gets re-elected, this country will become a 3rd world country with a dictator and freedoms will slowly disappear as they have been over the last three years. This country needs to revive the pride and respect in the United States Constitution and the laws of common sense. We need a President that will tell the American people the truth every issue and keep are borders safe.
Posted by: Robert Williamson | January 3, 2012, 6:18 am 6:18 am
Chuck, remember Carter, Clinton who dismantled the intellegance community, did they not tell everyone we don’t need them, noone will attack the US. What do you consider WMD, is it not something that destroys hundreds of thousands of people? Well Chemical Ali did just that in northern Iraq.
Posted by: Lizzie | January 3, 2012, 9:21 am 9:21 am
oBama spokesman Ben LaBolt wrote:”“He came into office when our economy was hemorrhaging more than 700,000 jobs a month and pulled it back from the brink, and we’ve now had 21 straight months of growth and almost 3 million private sector jobs created,”
.
Sounds word for word like the tripe that gets cut and pasted into literally every thread on this blog. Who knew Ben LaBolt was masquerading and posting on this blog as david, chuck, and every other leftie handle we see used everyday.
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | January 3, 2012, 6:45 pm 6:45 pm
“Four years ago, President Obama said on Iowa caucus night that he would make health care affordable and accessible for all Americans, put a middle class tax cut in the pockets of working Americans, start to free us from our dependence on foreign oil and end the war in Iraq – promises that have been fulfilled,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt in an email.
I can’t afford health insurance…So did he lie?
How big is the middle class tax cut I was supposed to get (I paid 7% more this year)
So do we get oil from foreign countries? Did he put a moratorium on drilling? Stop a pipe line?
Did he lie?
The only thing he did was started pulling troops out of Iraq…What happened soon after? Did Iran
start rattling her saber? Are we safer now or is that going to allow Al-Quida a better chance to focus YOU YOU and YOU???
Posted by: BTS | February 24, 2012, 11:22 pm 11:22 pm