Now begins the real race and Obama will not spare the ex-governor of Massachusetts any low blows.
Now that the picture of the Republican primaries is clearer, Barack Obama has decided that there is no more time to waste. He has already learned after the vote at the Iowa caucus this last week; a vote which saw an uncommon amount of activism on the part of the president of the United States, including political meetings, initiatives, announcements, even a sort of “town hall” with the voters. This was all in order to avoid leaving the shell of the Democratic caucuses uninhabited (Obama is without opponents, obviously, given that there is one candidate and one only). He has even gone as far as hallowing the anniversary of the birth of the 2008 mantra, “Yes, We Can” by propagating an official video.
Speaking to Democratic supporters in Iowa, the president recounted that his friend and strategist David Plouffe recently made him re-watch the TV spots from four years ago: “And, other than pointing out how much more gray I am,” joked Obama, “we were actually just remembering the incredible energy and excitement and the spirit of common purpose.” Recreating that magic is a mission impossible for the president’s team. The economic picture of the country is completely different; the wind that was blowing after eight years of George W. Bush inspired a desire for change and for liberation, but today it has gone cold, just as the proven capacity of an incumbent is not comparable to the unstoppable rise of an insurgent, like Obama in 2008. And, in any case, his most loyal supporters advise that can no longer be the basis of his reappointment.
The president’s white hair shows this: According to the traditional rule of electoral communication, the outgoing candidate should have frozen the youthful and vigorous image which he took to the White House, avoiding as much as possible to exhibit the effects of the passage of time. On the contrary, Obama seems almost to flaunt his white hair, just as he also, for example, spread whitened images via social networks which any spin doctor would have suggested be touched up.
Not a chance — Operation Truth, which the president wants to found his re-election on, even regarding looks, can only come from him. It can’t only come from the avalanche of dates and numbers used to substantiate his many achievements in these three years. All the more, given the black mane of his probable opponent Mitt Romney, disguised by the white feathers of his sideburns, is exactly the reality check that Obama will need to impose his presence in the electoral campaign.
The campaign looks to be anything but rosy, idealized and inspired as it was in 2008 when the efforts of his advisers were put towards the very task of underlining the differences between the Democratic candidate and Hillary Clinton, and then-contender John McCain. The signs from his general headquarters in Chicago all point in the same direction: Obama will not make allowances and will respond blow for blow, hot on the heels of his rival with the very topics used today by other aspiring Republicans (Romney’s membership of the elite, his work as manager in the years of greedy Wall Street, his long political career).
Mitt knows this well and, in fact, the other night after the victory in New Hampshire, he wasted no time in attacking Obama front on, as if to say, “Now it’s just the two of us.” Pelting blows to the “European” and “socialist” character of the Democratic president, a challenge was waved like a red cape under the nose of the “Right Nation.” This is why the Commander-in-Chief will increase initiatives aimed at the middle class — measures which seduce the independent electorate — and invitations to Congress to hurry up with the economic plan in retaliation, saying, “We can’t wait, we can’t wait.” It will not be evocative like “Yes, We Can,” but this will be the torment Obama the Wise will use to take back the White House.
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