How To Guarantee Four More Years of Obama

We’ve heard it said before – “it’s his race to lose.” I spent a little time earlier today, and yesterday discussing the prospects for the Romney Campaign in November with CDN’s Michelle Ray (@GaltsGirl), and The 405 Radio‘s John Grant (@JohnG405) respectively. Michelle and I were relatively in agreement, that it’s too soon to call. John, on the other hand, was far more optimistic about Romney’s chances. I’m a cynic, and generally lean toward the “worst case scenario” when it comes to evaluating where a campaign is. But, in this case, my problem isn’t with the Romney Camp. It is with the conservative “base.” And I did put that term in quotes for a reason, because it certainly isn’t solid.

Rewind to fall of 1996, and I was working on a state level campaign. The problem facing the candidate was two-fold. First, he was running for a soon-to-be-vacant seat, without the endorsement of the incumbent. Second, there was bad blood in the party. One of the candidates he defeated in the primary was running a small grassroots smear campaign against him in a few precincts he was not very strong in to begin with, but needed to win. Thankfully, one of his supporters in that area called in to the office, and reported it. The other good thing was that I answered that call. When I told the candidate and the campaign manager, they both acted like it was nothing. I ignored their assessment, and put a few extra bodies on the streets in those neighborhoods. At the victory party, someone started talking about how great it was that the candidate squeaked by in those precincts – that it clinched the race. I just laughed, and walked outside with my scotch and cigar in hand.

And here we are in 2012, facing the same sort of issue. This is convention week, and the GOP should be building enthusiasm and consolidating behind Romney. Even better, the Libertarians should be mending fences with the GOP, and Ron Paul should be calling for his followers to support Romney as well. After all, the bottom line is that no matter how much anyone on the right disagrees with Romney, they should be agreeing with him a hell of a lot more than they agree with Obama. And every vote that isn’t cast at all, or isn’t cast for Romney, is as good as a vote for Obama. (It’s all in the math, folks. Don’t forget how Ralph Nader and the Green Party were perennially a thorn in the side of the Dems.)

Yes, we may not like Romney, but he’s the man on the ballot. That will be made official tonight. The time for playing games is over. If you think for a second that the Dems wouldn’t be in lockstep behind their candidate if they weren’t seeking a second term in the White House, you’re bluntly insane. And that is how you win elections. But this is supposed to be about how to lose this one for Romney, isn’t it?

Romney is a socialist? Really? For the record here, I did a Twitter search for RINO, since that’s the favorite term being bandied about by rabble-rousers out there. This breaks one of the biggest rules when it comes to campaigns – there is no reason for anyone that is against Obama having a second term to be out there criticizing Romney, period. Yeah, I can just hear the screams of foul on that one, and self-righteous claims to First Amendment rights. I’m not talking censorship here folks. I am talking political survival. It’s real simple. If you don’t want four more years of Obama, then shut up about Romney until after November. Rip him to shreds if you like, the day after he ousts Obama. But until then, nada!

Now, I like Condi, so she got the attention here. Well, that and the fact that it seemed the majority of the Twitter venom was being aimed at her. Another big rule being broken here, when it comes to winning political campaigns – never beat on the mouthpieces! She’s a Romney surrogate, so she’s off-limits for criticism during the campaign. Again, this isn’t about censorship. Ask yourselves, before you start saying nasty things about GOP folks right now: “Do I really want to help the Obama Camp discredit Romney and win the election?” Put it on a post-it note on your computer monitors if you have to, but seriously think about it before you run loose ripping on GOP surrogates on the campaign trail. There are still fence-pole sitters out there, and you’re not going to do anything to convince them to agree with you if you can’t even manage to respect the people out there campaigning for “anyone but Obama.” Yeah, that’s for the benefit of the folks that have trouble stomaching Romney in the first place. Remember, we can’t afford four more years!

So, no picking on the right-wing. Save your venom for the real enemy. Have at it against Obama and his zombies. It’s not like there’s any shortage of targets. Ridicule the vagina women and Sandra Fluke. Get your jollies over the fact that the DNC had to downsize their convention from lack of interest in the events, while the RNC went on in spite of Isaac! Think about like those food guru books “eat this, not that” if you have to. Call out leftists on low blows against conservatives. Don’t run around attacking conservatives. And by “conservative” I mean anyone dedicated to even a small part of the conservative principles. Take it further, and include anyone dedicated to removing Obama from office – that is the goal. The infighting will win the election for Obama. That is a fact. We all know that the Dem playbook starts and ends with “divide and conquer.” Stop doing half the job for the Dems! Suck it up, support Romney, and get Obama the hell off of Pennsylvania Avenue! Send him back to Chicago, Hawaii, Kenya, Indonesia, or wherever else the bastard wants to go!

There’s your mantra folks – let’s roll!