This weekend, the GOP presidential nominee went to the NRA convention and attacked Obama on his gun control record.  The GOP nominee said that we need a president who will enforce the gun laws we have rather than create new ones.  The only problem is that Obama has a better gun control record than the GOP nominee.  It is the GOP nominee who said, “I don’t line up with the NRA.”  The anti-second Amendment Brady Center has consistently given Obama low ratings for his failure to restrict the Second Amendment.  It is our nominee who signed the first permanent assault weapons ban in the country.  Our nominee who supported the Brady Bill.  Our nominee who supported the five-day waiting period.  It is our nominee who was against gun rights until he decided to run for president.

WHAT IS THE POINT?

The goal here isn’t to weaken the GOP nominee, but it is to point out that the negative, dishonest campaign that won the GOP nomination against a batch of weak primary challengers without the money to fight back won’t defeat Mr. Obama.  When you hear David Axelrod speak, you know this is a guy that is ready for Romney.  This is a guy salivating at the mouth to take on Romney.  Axelrod wants to make sport of Romney and he is going to have the money to do it.

Here is the point, the GOP has made its bed, now it has to sleep in it.  We have a candidate that we can’t really compare and contrast with Obama because his own record is so . . . Un-conservative.  These independent voters that the party seems to want to woo more than its own base, are not going to fall for the argument that Obama is too liberal on gun rights.  Sure, the GOP can argue that he has put liberal judges on the bench, but there isn’t much to support the assertion that he has directly endangered gun owner’s rights.

We are going to need a message.  As the economy continues to self-correct, that becomes a heavier lift.    Our candidate isn’t a social conservative, so that is off the table.  He hasn’t been a friend to the Second Amendment, so that is off of the table.  He will quickly find that Obama is going to shred him apart if he attempts to discuss Obamacare, with Romneycare lurking in the background.  He can’t go after Obama on foreign policy because there is nothing to say.  What is our nominee’s message?  This election is increasingly looking to be a head-to-head match-up rather than a referendum on Obama.  Obama doesn’t plan to pass any more legislation until next year.  When he isn’t working, people love the guy.

The war on moms message is a start, but we don’t need to hear anything about 78 socialists or Obama’s war on guns.  We need a coherent honest message.  It is fine to ask if Americans are better off now than they were four years ago, but we must also make the case that we can do better.