Jim Webb, whose awkwardness on the stump was well known during his Senate campaign, just delivered the most compelling response and rebuttal to a State of the Union address I’ve seen in the past 15 years. He nailed it — conveyed his personal knowledge about military service, that people serve without regard to political ideology or political indentification, and did it without succumbing to partisan one-upmanship. He invoked the trust those who serve have in their commmander in chief, their faith that he sends them into harm’s way with the most noble of intentions. He even managed to make reference to his father’s sevice, his own in Vietnam and his son’s in Iraq — all without condescension or self-congratulation. His direct delivery, his deliberate pauses between sentences, his old-fashioned accent — all made it an unapologetic speech but not a lecture. He showed the Democrats, and all those who oppose Bush on Iraq, a way to oppose the war with dignity, humility and strength.
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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.
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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.
