Obama's Election Strategy - Distraction

Ignore the record.

President Obama’s biggest advantage in 2008 was that he had no record on which to run. He was a relative political neophyte with just eight years in the Illinois state Senate and four years in the United States Senate, the majority of which he had spent campaigning to be president. He was free to make as many fanciful promises as he wanted and he did (“This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”).

But now, Obama has a record. And Americans are not happy with it. That is why Obama is giving a “framing” speech in Cleveland, Ohio, today. The Wall Street Journal reports: “President Barack Obama will use his campaign policy speech in Cleveland on Thursday to present a fresh economic argument that his team hopes will cement their efforts to frame the election as a choice between two starkly different visions for the future, not a referendum on an incumbent overseeing a still-sluggish economy.”

But will voters ignore Obama’s record and fall for his rhetoric again? Discussions with voters in swing states seem to suggest not.