Mitt Romney loves to talk about his management of the 2002 Winter Olympics. He got $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars for the Olympics. Romney and his allies have been bashing President Obama lately for saying that individual prosperity is usually the result of that person getting some help along the way. And we all know that Mitt Romney was opposed to the government's bailout plan for the auto industry. What do these elements have in common? They are the ingredients for the perfect attack ad against Mitt Romney.
Imagine an auto worker, hard hat on, standing in front of a manufacturing plant. He says something like: "You know, Mitt Romney loves to talk about how he saved the 2002 Winter Olympics. What he doesn't tell you is that he used $1.3 billion of our taxpayer dollars to do it. Heck, he even became a registered lobbyist so he could ask members of Congress for all that cash! Now... I'm all for saving the Olympics. That's what we Americans do, we help each other succeed. But I gotta ask Mitt Romney: Why was it OK to use taxpayer dollars for the Olympics but not for saving the auto industry like President Obama did? You know, you just can't trust a guy who says one thing one day and turns around saying the opposite thing later.
This ad would combine so many effective attack angles and memes that it is almost hard to quantify. With this short, simple presentation, Obama could...
1) Connect with blue collar white voters by featuring an working-class auto worker
2) Use one of Romney's few strengths against him
3) Deconstruct the "you built this yourself" argument
4) Emphasize one of the President's greatest political achievements (auto bailout)
5) Stick Romney with the lobbyist label
6) Help build the case against Mitt Romney's character
Any questions??