Obama's Scare Card
President Obama's reelection campaign is using a little pre-Halloween scare to help its get-out-the-vote effort: will it work or backfire?
Obama's Scare Card
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
Well, the hope and change of 2008 has become the scare and stay of 2012.
The campaign effort to keep President Obama in office is airing a new TV ad that replaces his former "hope card" with a brand new "scare card."
It's clearly designed to push get-out-the-vote efforts in a cycle most observers say lacks the luster and enthusiasm Obama generated and benefited from four years ago.
The ad is running in key states such as Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Question is does it fire up supporters or backfire?
You can see the ad here.
It's titled "537," the number of votes by which George W. Bush won Florida and thereby the election in 2000 over then-Vice President Al Gore.
A narrator says that number "changed the course of American history" and was "the difference between what was and what could have been."
Images representing the collapse of the housing market, the economic plunge and foreign wars flash across the screen and we see a smiling George Bush seated beside a smirking Dick Cheney.
Then the narrator says, "So this year if you're thinking that your vote doesn’t count, that it won’t matter...well, back then there were probably 537 people who felt the same way. Make your voice heard."
It does not, of course, say what "could have been" under a President Gore; it, no doubt, will elicit reactions along the lines of, really, Bush again? That's all you got?
And it sure doesn't mention the fact that Ralph Nader got 97,488 votes in Florida that year and 2.9 million nationwide.
But, hey, what's wrong with a little scare, you know, just before Halloween?
This comment has been deleted.— carl and sons- "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things." - Barack Obama.
— jfar86 - Hoover- Businessman- Depression 1
Bush II- Businessman- Depression 2 and one recession
Romney- Businessman- Depression 3???
The other businessman president are:
Bush I- Businessman- 1 recession in 4 years
Carter- Businessman- 1 recession in 4 years
It is scary to bring a businessman in power to double down on Bush's tax cut and war economy.— Seed1 - We still have absolutely no idea what Romney believes, but the people who surround him are scary. He is now pretending to be a moderate, but his advisors are all crazy neocons. Robert Bork is his Supreme Court advisor. He picked a radical as his running mate. Romney has no character and all signs point to the destruction of all the progress we've made over the last four years if Romney gets elected. That is scary.
- Do you post all Democrat ads for free in this column?— ObamaSolyndra
- This comment has been deleted. — Just_Recently_Banned
- Same for kelprod2. A right wing poster, who seemingly has thrown in the towel and stopped posting over the last few weeks. What does that tell you? — CommonSense in Philly
- Why on earth is it "scary" to point out to people that elections have consequences. If Mitt wins, Roe v Wade almost certainly is going to overruled with the 1 or 2 Justices he gets to appoint. There will be no chance at balancing the budget without drastic cuts to safety net programs since there has been an abject refusal to increase income and capital gains taxes on the rich. While Mitt tried to be cuddly in the last two debates, the things he said in the campaign should be taken seriously. There is a huge difference between the agenda of an Obama admininstration and one of Mitt Romney. Whatever Romney may personally believe (and who knows after he has changed his positions so often), he will be beholden to the Tea Party and social conservatives that would have driven him to victory. So abortion rights and women's reproductive rights---out. National health coverage ---out. Tax reform---out. Back to Supply Side Trickle Down Economic Policies--Certain. Long term control of a Supreme Court that is an active advocate for the Republican Party and likely corporate control of elections to an extent only first being seen this year---definite. If you are afraid of those things happening, you must make sure to vote for Obama.— Palestra Jon
- More baseless fear mongering, which I guess is all you have when the President cannot point back to a positive record over the last four years.
First, it is entirely speculative to suggest that Roe v Wade would be overturned. Justices respect stare decisis. Moreover, even if Roe was overturned, that does not automatically make abortion illegal, it simply returns the decision to the states.
Romney is not a hard right wing candidate and never was. He is a pragmatist, not an ideologue.
— jfar86 - Romney WILL BE a hard right wing President because he'll be beholding to the Tea Party. Romney is a pansy. Romney will do what he's told to do by Sheldon Adelson and his other big donors. If you think Romney will sit in the Oval Office and be an independent president, you're clueless Jfar. — CommonSense in Philly
- You aren't really this naive, are you CS? Obama has plenty of big backers as well, including George Soros and his crew. Both parties are backed by big donors.
Romney certainly was not a hard right wing governor, and there is no reason to believe that he would be a hard right wing president. He is a businessman, a pragmatist and a leader.— jfar86 - He used his veto 800 times in Mass, and couldn't get reelected. That's hardly moderate or bipartisan. George Soros hasn't donated anywhere near the amount that Sheldon Addleson has. Romney has said he would overturn Roe, and history shows that businessmen make horrible presidents. It amazes me that they tell you up is down, you believe it, and then you call us naive? Telling the truth is not fear mongering. Weapons of mass destruction was.
- It should be scary Mitt is a fool who will say anything to get elected and he will be a tool for the extreme right, the middle right I have alot of respect for becuase they believe in compromise, the middle left the same thing. He will probaly still have a dem. senate and less seats in the house in 2014 the house will change and Mitts will dance to a new tune. Why in the world would people especialy woman vote for a member of a cult (religion) that believes he came from the planet KOLOB and a conservative catholic who only preaches anything to do with reproductive church doctrine and not the mission of compassion, that his church also preaches. Cuts to asucessfull programs and give to privite industry is beyond belief. — angrywhtguy
Still on the stump spinning again John?? It's time to replace that growling bear with a "paper tiger". It would fit well with the sorry excuse of a president you try to defend.— dogman5- What happened in Clayton is scary. Presidential elections matter little for people in Clayton. Nothing will change there. Nothing will change in DC either. Romney and Obama will all be eating off silver spoons until they die, most likely at the same tables very frequently. We the people have no choices at the highest levels. But Clayton's people should be filing suit against, or voting out every elected official that failed to respond appropriately over the last week.— UnaBlogger
John is the author of the book "On The Front Lines of Pennsylvania Politics: Twenty-Five Years of Keystone Reporting" (The History Press, 2012). Reach John at baerj@phillynews.com.
