A Flailing, Failing President and an Energized GOP

A Flailing, Failing President and an Energized GOP

 by: Hugh Hewitt  

The "ugly and desperate campaign of President Obama got called on it by Mitt Romney yesterday, just as Joe Biden fell off of the floor and went even lower. Thus a powerful theme is established, one that is likely to drive the president's numbers down as low as his rhetoric: The president is desperate and angry because his presidency has failed and everyone knows it, especially Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. The president is visibly floundering.

Paul Ryan, by contrast, has given Romney/Ryan the beginnings of a bounce, and his cross-over appeal to various key constituencies will deepen in the weeks and months ahead.

What really mattered in the past two days, though, is that Mitt Romney took the energy produced by Ryan's selection --and Ryan is a walking, talking 5-Hour Energy Drink-- and turned it into a full-throated attack not just on the president's tactics but on his failure across all aspects of his presidency save one, the killing of bin Laden. (The president likes to talk about the auto-bailout, but the facts have already caught up with that whopper.)

Bill Kristol noted this on my show yesterday as did Fred Barnes at The Weekly Standard, and it is hard to miss no matter who was doing the analysis because Romney's sudden, sharp turn on to the offensive began last week with Romney's attack on Obama's gutting of the work requirement in welfare and the attack on the HHS regs, then accelerated with the Ryan selection, continued on 60 Minutes, was amplified by Ryan in an impressive interview with Brit Hume yesterday and finally key-noted by Romney himself in the Chillocothe speech, which many said has been his best of the campaign so far.

Now to keep pressing, across all media fronts, and hopefully at length. Both GOP candidates who are excellent in extended interviews need to be on talk radio, talking to key blogs like Powerline, Instapundit, Hot Air, the Campaign Spot and Townhall's Tipsheet, and of course with the traditional Beltway "bigs" who are far behind on what just happened but who will figure it out and begin to stop seeing in Debbie Wasserman Schultz any sort of guide to reality. (I'd like DWS and Biden to have their own 24/7 cable channel --the twin gifts to the GOP that never fail to deliver for the Republicans.)

In short, the GOP has had a breakthrough week. Everyone who knows the country needs a huge change has got to hope they keep moving and thus keep the president and his increasingly embarrassing side-kick floundering. The MSM will regroup and find a new line of attack on both Romney and Ryan --starting a pool on how long until Paul Ryan gets asked about his college's name change from Redskins to Redhawks-- in an attempt to shore up their failing favorite, and they are nothing if not relentless. (Poor Soledad, flattened again. And CNN wonders why its ratings are lower than a cable access channel. Perhaps Soledad and DWS can go on tour when this is over.)

http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/g/8712b0a2-f585-4f86-9eaf-dfaec257952a