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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Barack Obama’s Re-Election Campaign Theme Won’t Be Hope and Change, Just Scorched Earth and Fear

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  April 21st, 2011 at 10:50 AM  | 

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Gas prices have more than doubled since Barack Obama took office. His deficit spending makes George Bush look like a rank amateur. 78% of Americans recognize inflation is on the rise. One dollar bill buys less and less. We’re a little bit more pregnant in Libya, but just barely. Our foreign policy is rudderless and often against our best interests.

Today comes news that for the first time since the Great Depression, more Americans get government money than give the government money. Americans are dependent on Washington for the livelihoods.

Also out late yesterday, CNS News reports that we will hit the legal limit on the national debt in less than a week. This is surprising news to pretty much everyone. But the data comes from the Treasury Department itself.

This is no way to enter a re-election campaign. Barack Obama cannot run on hope or change. Instead, he is going to run on fear. It is abundantly apparent and confirmed to me by several Democrats who’d know. Barack Obama’s re-election strategy will be a scorched earth campaign.

Over the next few months, Barack Obama will seek to define the Republicans as willing to kill the old and young, pass radical legislation, and send us into the league of the third world. “But wait,” you say. “Barack Obama has already done that.”

In essence, yes. So Obama is not going to run on defending his record. He’s going to run on saying that Republicans will be even worse than him and, oh by the way, none of it is his fault.

Barack Obama has largely gotten a pass his whole life. He’s never been in a real executive role. By his own admission in his book he was largely a failed community organizer. And now he is failed President.

The only way to hang on to his job is to peddle fear and intimidation of those who’d stand in his way. This is also one reason so many Republicans are waiting to announce their runs. They all know the moment they come out swinging, Obama’s union goons and money will savage them.

At the same time, the GOP has yet to mount a successful attack on Obama to make him own high gas, high inflation, declining dollars, and our declining standing in the world. If they don’t get out there soon, the hill they have to climb will be even higher.

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COMMENTS

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  • bigredone

    We had a small meeting with Congressman Brett Guthrie last Monday night.

    All of us left with the opinion that the GOP strategy is failing. The leadership in the Congress is inadequate to the task. All of them fear Obama. I understand why they do, but one of them must summon the Courage to do and say the things that must be done and said.

    I believe your “Face the Base” idea is the correct strategy to follow. I will try to find someone to research the possibility of holding nominating conventions here in Kentucky instead of these dreadful primaries. Even if I have to do it myself.

  • markinidaho

    That’s the change – there is no hope left. The United States of America has fallen, it just needs a little time to begin to stink.

    The Republicans won’t change the direction the nation is going, it is going too well for those in power who want it to fail, including Obama. This isn’t some accidental disaster, this is planned. Don’t suppose that Obama or Bush2 or Clinton or Bush1 didn’t understand that if you make it easy to get free money from the government, most people will stop working and take it, and who cares what happens to their so-called “freedom”?

    The nation is finished. It cannot recover. Thy Kingdom come, quickly please.

  • gwindybrown

    is his willingness to promote class warfare. He is constantly berating the rich as he defines them as being anyone who earns more the $250 thousand dollars a year. At the same time he is calling for another stimulus for the fantastically wealthy. More money in the pockets of his well heeled Wall Street pals who have already lined their bottom line with Tarp, the first Stimulus and every regulation his Administration can muster to protect the fat cats ill gotten gains.

    Why wouldn’t he want these people to be rewarded so he gets his campaign coffers filled with the very same money he gave them, just laundered through really big multinational corporations. He and his pals have turned these government funds, taxpayer money, into an Obama/Democrat slush fund.

    People aren’t as unsophisticated as they used to be about these kinds of deals. They’ve seen the same thing happening throughout this Administration’s tenure as well as George W. Bush in his last 2 years (with the help of the Democrat House and Senate) and all of Bill Clinton’s Chinese money machinations.

    At the same time, he is giving cover to the radical activist on the left with his soak the rich rhetoric. Activist groups like the UnCut, idiots who think activism is an outlet for a fantasy Broadway audition, to the ACORN groups who have tried to disappear by changing their names but are still actively seeking to steal elections by protecting illegal, dead and Mickey mouse voters. They know his [In]Justice Department has their backs.

    He is again targeting the newly propagandized college crowd and minorities, legal or otherwise, with his ‘Republicans are evil’ and will kill babies and Grandma message. But he may find this a tougher sell this time around. People who have become activists for the Tea Party have caught onto his two-faced claims. They are now seeing that with every new invective he hurls against the right he isn’t describing the Tea Party or conservatives he is describing himself and the Democratic Party.

    One only needs to put all of his charges of Republicans killing entitlements, hurting the young and the elderly. and his class warfare mantra through the prism of Alice’s looking glass to turn his real intent 180 degrees. He can’t hide behind his skewed [ill]logic and his pandering with his two-faced mask People have awakened from their stupor of hope and change and are ready to see him for what he is; a narcissistic, bullying, child who throws temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way.

    My only hope is that the right doesn’t fritter away this opportunity with their indecisive search for the “perfect candidate” We need to pick someone soon and remember, our next vote has to be for anyone but Obama.

  • ag8tor

    some of the same stuff he used in 2008. The same stuff he used to scare the older citizens and the same stuff he used to incite the politically ignorant college crowd. Then he’ll pull the switcheroo and start back in with the class warfare BS that he used in his speech last week. Gwindybrown has indeed seen through his ponzi scheme of using stimulus money laundered through large corporations as a campaign warchest. Much like the Japanese did to us in WWII. They bought up tons of our scrap metal and then shot it back at us. He is worried about his legacy as they all are. However, he will be remembered as the worst president ever and the figure that conned his way to the WH. Even sadder is the fact that the Republican Party is scared of him and will not come out swinging when they have the upper hand because they are hesitant to do anything that might upset the messiah. Unfortunatelybecause of their weak spines he will be re-elected and any “hope” we had will be “changed” into dust. Please pray that the American public is not that stupid again. I have my doubts.

  • radicalrighty

    Not to mention, the MSM, who, while not nearly as “all in” with Bill Clinton in ’96, still were able to carry him to a second term.

  • radicalrighty

    Not to mention, the MSM, who, while not nearly as “all in” with Bill Clinton in ’96, still were able to carry him to a second term.

  • http://www.voteforteri2010.com teridavisnewman

    I could live with Trump/DeMint although my personal dream ticket is Christie/Bachmann. When push comes to shove, Sarah Palin may be the only one with the balls to stand up to him–after all, what else could they possibly do to her?
    We need to primary the RINOs and against my personal best interests which would be to pay attention to my business and hope for the best, I am once again running for Congress because we have to get some people that are going to do what’s right for America instead of what’s right for them. I’d be a lot better off personally to focus on making money and taking care of my own but I owe America more than to walk away in this dark hour.

  • aldutt9mm

    The GOP has to stand up to this jerk…we have tough people on our side also..push has come to shove time to shove back and mean it..get this imposter out of office he is ruining this great country and by letting him do it the rinos are helping..2012 may be to late lets hope the public gets it this time and the gop wakes up and unifies…IMPEACH THIS PHONEY NOW..God BLESS America

  • singnan

    We will not give up on our country. A third party may emerge with a new leader. This is the only way I can see through it at this point……perhaps the Kingdom Above will send one. Michelle Bachmann seems the closest thing to me so far.

  • powertothepeople

    to partner up with the joker better known as Trump and as to Christie/Bachmann, Bachmann’s conservative beliefs would be in direct contradiction to Christie’s more moderate/liberal social stances. Again, not sure she would be willing to give up her beliefs on social issues to push the agenda of a fiscal genius but a social moderate.

  • dalebret

    First, apologies, gwindybrown. I’m posting as a reply because the Redstate site won’t open a comment window for me today.

    The comment:
    both Obama’s books were written to cover his past. He was not a largely failed community organizer; he was a very successful community organizer. Read Kutrz’s Radical-in-Chief as an easily accessible source regarding much of BHO’s Chicago past.

  • puncho

    Jerome Corsi’s new book comes out soon. Regardless of what anyone thinks about whether or not BHO should release his personal documents, his refusal to do so and the way the media covers for him reflects Erick’s point about intimidation.

    You can preview the book here:
    http://www.ebooksandcoffee.com/index.php?c=all&n=none&i=1936488299&x=Wheres_the_Birth_Certificate_The_Case_that_Barack_Obama_is_not_Eligible_to_be_President

  • hendrig

    If Obama were white, impeachment could work but we all know he will play the race card. Everyone in Washington are afraid of being branded a racist if they vote in favor of it.

    All those who voted him in office will still vote for him in 2012. I don’t blame the clowns that voted him into office. At least they voted. The only way to prevent a second term isn’t going to happen. We need more people to vote. In the last several elections, less than 50% of those eligible even bothered to vote. They all have their reasons but none are valid. Some say their vote means nothing because the election has already been decided. Others say they didn’t like any of the candidates so they didn’t vote. Still others say they don’t vote so you can’t blame them for all the problems. WRONG! There are as many reasons for not voting as there are people who don’t vote. Apathy is the biggest threat to our liberties. All the politicians are saying we must get out and vote. If you believe they’re sincere about that, I have a bridge in New York I can sell you. The politician’s worse nightmare is if all those eligible actually voted. Then they would have to work for their constituents and there is no money in that. The big money comes from supporting special interest lobbies. We have the best politicians money can buy.

    We also need to do a complete house cleaning in Washington and vote out all the incumbents and you don’t have to cross party lines to do it. Encourage more people to run against the incumbents in the primaries. That way you can vote out the incumbents without having to sacrifice party loyalty. That can work from the local people right up to the President.

    We also need different type of people to send to Washington and the state capitols. Bold people who aren’t afraid to make the tough decisions. Tough people who will stand up to the media and special interest lobbies. Rude people who will fire the foot kissers, and tell the business as usual seven carbon copy bureaucratic idiots, along with the special interest groups, to go jump in the lake. Forceful people who will push through the right legislation and and change the laws that are killing this country from within. They have to be young people because we need to be a young country again.

    We are all going to have to make sacrifices. This country didn’t get in this situation overnight and we can’t bring it back on track overnight.

    Those who don’t vote deserve the government they have and have no room to complain. To those I say this. If the day ever comes when you find out that the minority of voters have voted all your rights away, don’t complain to me. I will ask where you were when there was still time to do something about it.

    Lets start a slogan for the next election. “REELECT NO ONE. FIRE THEM ALL!

  • msctex

    If you’ve given up, keep it to yourself. People with a bit more courage and understanding of their enemy are trying to drink their coffee.

  • earlgrey
  • izoneguy

    Starts spreading fear & panic – it’s time to get rid of him.

    Americans are not wimps. I get real tired of Obama treating us like children.

  • YnotNOW

    Unfortunately, Obama’s fear-mongering will reach a receptive audience in much of the population. People who are too afraid to “lose” what they’ve got (in terms of government benefits), rather than face the fact that those benefits are not sustainable and therefore must be changed in order to save them.

    Same with all of the constituencies for corporate welfare, environmental dreamers, unions, etc.

    This will be a serious fight, because most refuse to face the fact that painful cuts are necessary.

  • YnotNOW

    Unfortunately, Obama’s fear-mongering will reach a receptive audience in much of the population. People who are too afraid to “lose” what they’ve got (in terms of government benefits), rather than face the fact that those benefits are not sustainable and therefore must be changed in order to save them.

    Same with all of the constituencies for corporate welfare, environmental dreamers, unions, etc.

    This will be a serious fight, because most refuse to face the fact that painful cuts are necessary.

  • Goldwater_Conservative

    that will fail to gain any independants and certianly no conservatves. The bubble has popped and the air has come out, all we need to do now is get rid of the shakes and sink this 2 foot putt to win.

  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

    who in 2000 supported single payer government run healthcare?

    The staunch conservative who thinks the GM/Chrysler bailouts were just the thing to do?

    Etc.

    You pretty well sunk your candidacy in 12 with this foolishness.

  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

    You want to impeach BO? List the names of 67 US Senators who will vote to impeach before posting this tripe again. There are probably things that are more stupid than this, I just can’t think of what one might be.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    He can use all his TARP money to go buy airtime!

  • renny

    Look at his currenr demeanor and responses. He has lost his “cool” and “no dranma Obama” and turned into the witchy harridan he always was. Is that a good political mood?

    Threatening the press (TX) is also not the way to win friends and infuence anyone.

    As to class warfare: when SDS was hot in the 60s and sent cadres out to recruit Americans for the revolution, they discovered that Americans didn’t want a revolution. They wanted to be ec. successful. o and crew will find that is still true today.

    If Trump can dig up something really interesting, the MSM will have a hard time resisting piling on once the first hole in the dam is poked. Maybe the Corsi book will do it, as yesterday it was No. 2 on Amazon and is not out for another month.

    Think of the positives: o can’t blame Bush anymore, $5 gasoline will not endear him to even the most enchanted, ACORN has been virtually neutered, college studenrs think he’s a jerk, even academics have scrubbed off his bumper stickers, and the MSM has lost its mojo.

    We now NEED a candidate, and I do not care if it is Palin, Trump, Cain, yadda. And once we have him or her, we should not natter every day about why his/her stand on chicken plucking means you won’t vote. Get a grp and stay in attack mode. Never give in and never give up.

  • poorman2011

    Our President fans the flames of class warfare not aware his own problems are consuming him,as he uses his usual style of trying to show confidence in policies that can only be considered a failed attempt. Our President, he promised change,he promised to restore hope.Our President promised to change how Washington worked,well we see change,ever rising prices on everyday items with no end in sight,bailouts,calls for raising taxes on the evil rich,as senators hurriedly write laws filled with tax breaks for supporters,energy policies favoring sources that are clearly possible but not able to fill demand. Progressive Governments always end up the same, first they fail, then in the confusion the worst of all outcomes ” Socialism ” we are close. That is just my opinion

  • victrola

    Sarah Palin went right out of the gate running for President, and in my opinion she’s now damaged goods from over exposure. I will say though that much of her damage was self-inflicted, as even I started out being a BIG supporter in 2008 and afterwards to coming to the conclusion that she just wasn’t White House material. Had she kept her powder dry (and not quit in the middle of her first term as Governor) she would have easily been the current front runner.

    The absolute only way Obama wins reelection is by a scorched earth campaign, no other way to win with such a horrible record. Obama needs an enemy to batter. In a normal election environment, a Democrat as radical and shady as Obama would NEVER be elected President. He needed a crisis and a scape goat.

    I still think the facts on the ground will just be too much for Obama to overcome, even with a fawning MSM, a ruthless political machine, and a billion dollars of campaign ads. Americans are hurting in a way we haven’t seen since the Great Depression, and no amount of negative campaign ads will change that.

  • carolina

    I just hope there are a LOT of others who feel the same way we do.
    And, $5-6 gasoline might be just what we need to throw this bum out of office. Paying that much will be worth it if we get rid of BO.

  • controse

    propose it now. It would already be done. Present the evidence. Have them vote it down. Do it all over again in 60 days preceded of course with relentless political pressure on those that voted against it. We do it until we get 67. The man’s very existence is a fraud. If our system of government can’t purge him we are just kidding ourselves that we have a system of government guided by the Constitution.

  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

    In the world of stupid stupid stupid ideas impeachment is King.

    First of all, you don’t even have a “charge”. And you won’t come up with one either.

    Second, even if you had a charge there is no way in Hell you get 2/3 of the House to vote for impeachment.

    Third, 67 votes in the Senate wouldn’t happen if we had 70 Republican Senators.

    Fourth, and this is the important one, impeaching BO would have the same impact as impeaching Clinton. We lose big time and BO ends up with a united party structure behind him and probably adds 30 points to his ratings because of racist Republicans. We take a huge drubbing in the 12 Congressional contests where we should be on track to pick up record numbers of seats.

    We can beat the left on the issues, just like we had Clinton on the ropes on the issues and let him off. Impeachment was then, and is now, the single most counter productive act we could possibly come up with, it’s a loser in every possible way.

    And did I mention it’s utterly stupid? Well, it is. It’s even more stupid that demanding to see a birth certificate. And please try to defend that one.

  • powertothepeople

    are inferring impeach him due to the whole birth certificate thing. As you stated the two are very stupid mentalities and I think these two jokers are just stupid enough to be for both.

  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

    I’m fishing for a defense of the birth certificate.

  • http://westforwestwing2012.com heartlander

    He’s Don Corleone.

    See David Freddoso’s new book, Gangster Government, a term that I believe was first used by the fearless Rep. Michele Bachmann.

    Obama himself may leave no tracks, but you can be sure that there are individuals within the ranks of the union goons, race warriors and other assorted leftist maniacs who are willing to do violence.

    Indeed, quite a few tea partiers have been physically assaulted and injured. Republican state senators in Wisconsin have received detailed, credible death threats. Michelle Malkin has compiled a tip-of-the-iceberg summary of the violence and threatened violence by Leftist individuals over just the last few years.

    Saul Alinsky, Obama’s great community-organizing model, apprenticed himself to Frank Nitti, the right-hand man of Al Capone.

    And please remember that Obama didn’t just sit on boards with Bill Ayers, didn’t just launch his political career in his living room, didn’t just appear at a few public forums with him. No, Obama shared an office with the killer for three years. Shared an office with a terrorist who once held a meeting in which the “elimination” of 25 million Americans was calmly discussed.

    And it’s not just mass murder that the Left is so fond of. They’re willing to “eliminate” individuals who get in their way. (Think Don Corleone.) Just ask David Horowitz, whose good friend was bumped off by the Black Panthers. (It became the turning point in David’s life when he began questioning communism). The Left is willing not only to lie through their teeth, steal elections, bully and intimidate people, they are willing to commit murder.

    Barack Obama is a mean, nasty, manipulative, tyrannical bully. If I had to encounter him in person, I’d probably be scared of him too. It’d be my animal instincts kicking in — I can sense a predator. I don’t blame these people for being scared. How would you like to get a phone call in the middle of the night from one of the minions/thugs, along the lines of (channeling Saul Alinsky’s old Mafia mentor) “Nice family ya got there. It’d be a shame if anything happened to ‘em…”

    But this ain’t the Soviet Union yet. It ain’t even Sicily yet. This is still America, the land of the free, and if someone speaks out against the thugocracy, millions of us will rise to support him or her. There are people who evidently are not one bit intimidated by Obama, not even in face-to-face encounters. (This man, for example.)

  • http://westforwestwing2012.com heartlander

    He was recruited by ACORN to do trainings, because he was widely recognized locally as being one of the best organizers.

    For too many Americans, the term “community organizing” conjures up food banks, recycling drives, after-school programs and bake sales. But “community organizing” in the Alinsky model has a very specific meaning — that being what we used to call “rabble-rousing” — i.e., stirring up people’s envy and resentment, inciting class warfare, channeling people’s rage into intimidation campaigns, etc. Obama was very good at it. Gee, imagine that!

    The O’Keefe/Giles/Breitbart bust-up of ACORN will be looked back on by the historians as a seminal event. ACORN is still out there under other names, organized a little differently, but still out there. The difference is, now they’ve been exposed and We the People know what their game is.

    For a book written decades ago that has become extremely relevant once again, I highly, highly recommend Tom Wolfe’s Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak-Catchers. It’s a short, quick read, it’s hilarious (in a dark way), and it’s dynamite.

  • http://westforwestwing2012.com heartlander

    Actually, I’d be scared, but I hope that my conviction would give me the courage to at least confront him about the born-alive babies that he voted three times to abandon and let die of exposure in hospital dirty-linen closets.

    Since I know, not just believe, that I am 100% right on this, and I know</em, not just believe, that he is 100% wrong, I think that issue, if nothing else, would give me the courage to confront him. He is a moral midget. And, while all of us are sinners — I more than most folks, actually — on this one issue he proves himself as an inhumanly cruel human being.

  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

    and Bill S knocked it off. With a really nice swing.

  • williamjameson

    in various states and he’s campaigning early due to fear he’s lost his base. Too many have said he should have a dem challenger. One emerged and he’s MIA, forget his name but Politico wrote about someone.

    The anti-war left, envirofascists, anti-capitalists who rail against wallstreet and so called megacorps……..all of these groups have many who have turned on Obama. As well many stayed home for the 2010 election. Obama will lose some because many of these groups have childish members who rail against the norms of the party.