Kudos to Jay for exposing the Romney blather–a disappointment, given the fact that he did pass universal health insurance in Massachusetts. But I’m not that impressed by the $6.5 million he raised, either. Money is a vastly overrated indicator of political credibility. Remember Howard Dean’s $40 million? Politicians raise money so they can buy (mostly negative) ads. But people are growing tired of the vitriol; they’re using their clickers to surf past the garbage. A vomitous amount of cash was spent on negative ads by Republicans in the 2006 election, and look where it got them. (Although, one caveat: a certain amount of cash in the bank doesn’t hurt–the fact that Democrats were able to respond so quickly and creatively to the Republican spots certainly helped their cause.)
-
Latest on Swampland
Why Romney Is Dodging the Press
Joe, the Romney campaign’s control-freakery makes for bad democracy, but I suspect it’s a smart strategy. Consider the way Mitt’s personal approval rating has bounced back over the past several weeks. As the GOP primaries wrapped up, Romney was roughly as unpopular as late-era George W. Bush. Now he’s about even with Barack Obama.
Since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Romney’s favorable-unfavorable rating has jumped to 50%-41%, his best ever and in the same neighborhood as Obama’s 52%-46% standing.
What changed? Well, for one thing, other Republican rivals are no longer attacking Romney. That helps. But it’s not like he’s had a free ride: the Obama camp has picked up where Rick and Newt left off. An alternate explanation would be that Americans are simply seeing less of Romney, and that makes them like him better.
From our PartnersFor Obama, gay marriage stance born of a long evolutionHuffPost Politics
Crossroads, Super PACs and the Incumbent Advertising Gap
In a recent piece about the Obama-Romney ad wars, Michael Scherer made the smart point that this election is different from past ones in that the incumbent no longer gets a free hit on his rival during the period immediately following the primary. The reason: super PACs have the cash to cover that gap while the challenger collects enough general election funds to keep pace.
