Analysis

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Obama's ad a brilliant political pivot

By: Peter Morici

Posted: 05/25/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

The Obama ad attacking Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital was a shameless exaggeration but a brilliant political pivot. Instead of running on his record -- where he is vulnerable -- the president is making character the issue.

President Barack Obama promised a lot when he ran for president -- to fix the trade deficits with China and on oil, which together steal some five million jobs, curb the excesses at Wall Street banks, and curb escalating health-care costs.

In perfectly choreographed fashion, the Bain ad characterized Romney as someone who bought up healthy businesses, loaded them with debt and then drove them into bankruptcy -- destroying jobs to enrich his private equity partners.

Cory Booker, Democratic mayor of Newark, made headlines calling the ad "nauseating to the American public" and that gave Obama the perfect opportunity to attack Romney oh so effectively.

The president strongly defended the ad, stating Mitt Romney is running on his experience at Bain, not his record as governor of Massachusetts.

Then Obama took the opportunity to say a president can't just worry about making a profit but rather whether the country is investing in jobs today and in the future, cutting-edge technology and a fairer tax system.

The president brilliantly drew the contrast between his public career and Romney's private pursuit of profit -- that's where he wants voters' attention.

Most voters didn't see, and certainly won't remember, the details of the Bain ad, but they will remember Obama's goals -- creating jobs, reorienting the economy and economic justice -- and how Romney allegedly made his fortune -- buying, borrowing and burying jobs.

The facts are that in the three years since Obama became president, the trade deficit is up 40 per cent, JPMorgan and other big banks are still running their Manhattan casinos and health-care costs keep rocketing.

It's a lousy economy full of injustice, and Obama can't easily claim to have made things better.

For several days the press coverage will remain focused on the Bain ad and private equity, Obama's goals and Romney's character, and not on the incumbent's record and the challenger's solutions.

This is quite similar to the tactic employed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Each time bipartisan consensus is reached to find money for a policy priority, like extending low-interest student loans, he offers a bill to raise taxes on high-income Americans.

Reid knows Republicans will block such class warfare, and the president can then crow that he stands up for ordinary folk while Republicans stand up for the wealthy.

Yet, Romney is to blame for not turning the debate to the economy and his solutions. He has criticized the president's record but not with the showmanship and skill of the Obama-to-Booker- to-Obama triple play.

Mayor Booker played the shill so well -- he deserves an Academy Award for best supporting actor.

More importantly, Romney by focusing on his private-sector experience is not effectively explaining how his solutions on China, energy, banking, and health-care will work, make a difference and create jobs.

Sadly, with each passing day, Romney looks like another hopeful from Massachusetts -- John Kerry.

Both dress up well, but under the intense lights of a national campaign, they are easily outwitted by a wily incumbent.

Peter Morici is an economist and professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, and widely published columnist.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 25, 2012 A12

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