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Mitt Romney’s specious welfare attack  It so happens that when Mitt Romney came to Ohio yesterday that I was able to catch one of his appearances, speaking to hundreds of coal miners in Beallsville. As expected, Romney hit President Obama for his “war on coal” (never mind that Romney in 2003 stood outside a coal-fired plan in Salem, Mass. and said that it “kills people.”) But he got his biggest applause during this riff:  Alec MacGillis — “The Welfare Card And The Post-Truth Campaign” 
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Mitt Romney’s specious welfare attack 

It so happens that when Mitt Romney came to Ohio yesterday that I was able to catch one of his appearances, speaking to hundreds of coal miners in Beallsville. As expected, Romney hit President Obama for his “war on coal” (never mind that Romney in 2003 stood outside a coal-fired plan in Salem, Mass. and said that it “kills people.”) But he got his biggest applause during this riff: 

Alec MacGillis — “The Welfare Card And The Post-Truth Campaign” 

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The Era of Cell Phone Fundraising is Upon Us

“We’ve all gotten used to emails from Michelle, Barack, and Sarah Jessica, but starting soon, it will be our cell phones that we’re checking for those dinner invites. On Monday, the FEC allowed political campaigns, PACs, and super PACs to receive cash donations via text message for the first time.”

- Simon van Zuylen-Wood, “Texts from Barack”

Should Obama attack Romney for being hollow or extreme? “Left without a manufactured scandal or over-hyped gaffe to talk about these past few days, the media circus has turned its attention to matters of a higher order: campaign semiotics. Specifically, the apparent shift in the framing of the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney, from casting him as a hollow man who “lacks a core” to casting him as someone who’s been sticking to a conservative, even extreme line for a while now on, among other issues, immigration, women’s health care, and the Ryan budget plan, which he recently declared “marvelous.” Monday, Politico went so far as to divine the big dog’s footprints in this messaging transformation, tracing it back to a meeting that Bill Clinton held with Obama’s top strategists back in November—“A more effective strategy, Clinton has told anyone who would listen, would be to focus almost exclusively on Romney’s description of himself as a ‘severe conservative,’ to deny him any chance to tack back to the center, according to three Democrats close to the situation.”” - Alec MacGillis, A False Choice For Obama’s Anti-Romney Message Photo courtesy of seattlepi
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Should Obama attack Romney for being hollow or extreme?

“Left without a manufactured scandal or over-hyped gaffe to talk about these past few days, the media circus has turned its attention to matters of a higher order: campaign semiotics. Specifically, the apparent shift in the framing of the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney, from casting him as a hollow man who “lacks a core” to casting him as someone who’s been sticking to a conservative, even extreme line for a while now on, among other issues, immigration, women’s health care, and the Ryan budget plan, which he recently declared “marvelous.” Monday, Politico went so far as to divine the big dog’s footprints in this messaging transformation, tracing it back to a meeting that Bill Clinton held with Obama’s top strategists back in November—“A more effective strategy, Clinton has told anyone who would listen, would be to focus almost exclusively on Romney’s description of himself as a ‘severe conservative,’ to deny him any chance to tack back to the center, according to three Democrats close to the situation.””

- Alec MacGillis, A False Choice For Obama’s Anti-Romney Message

Photo courtesy of seattlepi

When will Santorum fold? “More than any presidential candidate since maybe Gary Hart in 1984, Santorum vindicated the quixotic dreamers who struggle on despite invisible poll ratings, tin-cup financing, and the dismissive wisecracks from political insiders. Santorum was a throw-back candidate—not only with his 1950s social values, but also in his forged-by-necessity embrace of the most old-fashioned way of running for president. In Iowa, where he made his move in the polls only two weeks before the January 3 caucuses, Santorum campaigned everywhere, responded at (sometimes tedious) length to every voter question, and cheerfully deflected skeptical press queries like the one I posed to him in mid-December: “Some days, don’t you get discouraged?”” - Walter Shapiro, The One Nice Thing About Rick Santorum’s Now-Doomed Campaign
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When will Santorum fold?

“More than any presidential candidate since maybe Gary Hart in 1984, Santorum vindicated the quixotic dreamers who struggle on despite invisible poll ratings, tin-cup financing, and the dismissive wisecracks from political insiders. Santorum was a throw-back candidate—not only with his 1950s social values, but also in his forged-by-necessity embrace of the most old-fashioned way of running for president. In Iowa, where he made his move in the polls only two weeks before the January 3 caucuses, Santorum campaigned everywhere, responded at (sometimes tedious) length to every voter question, and cheerfully deflected skeptical press queries like the one I posed to him in mid-December: “Some days, don’t you get discouraged?””

- Walter Shapiro, The One Nice Thing About Rick Santorum’s Now-Doomed Campaign

Assuming Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee, who will he choose as his running mate? The most striking thing that emerged from these conversations was that some Republicans are a lot more excited about the vice presidential choices than about the presidential ones. “We have more instantly credible vice presidents than we do people running for president,” said Ed Rogers, co-founder with Haley Barbour of the public relations group BGR and a veteran of the Bush-Quayle campaign. Read more in Eliza Gray’s “Veep Squad.”
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Assuming Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee, who will he choose as his running mate?

The most striking thing that emerged from these conversations was that some Republicans are a lot more excited about the vice presidential choices than about the presidential ones. “We have more instantly credible vice presidents than we do people running for president,” said Ed Rogers, co-founder with Haley Barbour of the public relations group BGR and a veteran of the Bush-Quayle campaign.

Read more in Eliza Gray’s “Veep Squad.”

Medieval Mitt? “Last night was, by all accounts, a good night for Mitt Romney. He went into the New Hampshire primary needing two things: to win by a significant margin and to leave no one else with a plausible path to victory. The results from the Granite State fulfilled both of these Romney criteria, and it’s now extremely likely Mitt Romney will win the Republican presidential nomination this year. But it’s still unclear whether he will emerge from the process with his reputation, and his polling numbers, intact.” - Ed Kilgore, “Can Mitt Prevent His Opponents From Going Medieval on Him?” For more Romney coverage, read TNR Senior Editor Timothy Noah on why Romney is on a “soul saving mission” and Johnathan Cohn on why a Romney-Obama contest would result in a dramatic clash. Photo courtesy of Talking Points Memo.
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Medieval Mitt?

“Last night was, by all accounts, a good night for Mitt Romney. He went into the New Hampshire primary needing two things: to win by a significant margin and to leave no one else with a plausible path to victory.

The results from the Granite State fulfilled both of these Romney criteria, and it’s now extremely likely Mitt Romney will win the Republican presidential nomination this year. But it’s still unclear whether he will emerge from the process with his reputation, and his polling numbers, intact.”

- Ed Kilgore, “Can Mitt Prevent His Opponents From Going Medieval on Him?”

For more Romney coverage, read TNR Senior Editor Timothy Noah on why Romney is on a “soul saving mission” and Johnathan Cohn on why a Romney-Obama contest would result in a dramatic clash.

Photo courtesy of Talking Points Memo.

Too awkward to be President? “He is still one awkward fellow. In addition to the fast talking and forced cheer, there is the strange business of his arms. When he gets applause or a laugh, his arms, which normally are up in front of him holding the mike, drop straight down to his side, as if connected to some signal in his brain that orders him to pause to let the audience reaction play out. This is usually accompanied by an odd facial gesture — mouth closed, lips pressed tightly together, and eyes opened wide and unblinking, a look that, when the cause of the applause or laughter is a shot at Obama (which it usually is), conveys a sort of pleasurable chagrin, a “more in sorrow than in anger” condescension toward the poor incompetent president.” -Alec MacGillis, “Mitt Romney, “Whose Father Made Ramblers.”
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Too awkward to be President?

“He is still one awkward fellow. In addition to the fast talking and forced cheer, there is the strange business of his arms. When he gets applause or a laugh, his arms, which normally are up in front of him holding the mike, drop straight down to his side, as if connected to some signal in his brain that orders him to pause to let the audience reaction play out. This is usually accompanied by an odd facial gesture — mouth closed, lips pressed tightly together, and eyes opened wide and unblinking, a look that, when the cause of the applause or laughter is a shot at Obama (which it usually is), conveys a sort of pleasurable chagrin, a “more in sorrow than in anger” condescension toward the poor incompetent president.”

-Alec MacGillis, “Mitt Romney, “Whose Father Made Ramblers.”

Does President Obama’s re-election campaign depend on the youth vote? Americans are polarized like never before as we head into the 2012 presidential campaign, and the greatest dividing line of all seems to be age. Indeed, President Obama has astoundingly consistent support from Americans less than 30 years old, the so-called Millennial generation, but is it enough to deliver the White House again? For more on why Obama’s campaign narrative will focus on special appeal to this generation read Ruy Teixeira’s “Why Obama’s Re-election Campaign Will Depend on the Youth Vote,” here. Photo courtesy of Tree Hugger.
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Does President Obama’s re-election campaign depend on the youth vote?

Americans are polarized like never before as we head into the 2012 presidential campaign, and the greatest dividing line of all seems to be age. Indeed, President Obama has astoundingly consistent support from Americans less than 30 years old, the so-called Millennial generation, but is it enough to deliver the White House again?

For more on why Obama’s campaign narrative will focus on special appeal to this generation read Ruy Teixeira’s “Why Obama’s Re-election Campaign Will Depend on the Youth Vote,” here.

Photo courtesy of Tree Hugger.