Democratic Convention: Obama Must Change

As Politico explains, when Mitt Romney hammers Obama on health care, or on other first term accomplishments; when the most conservative Republicans call Obama a socialist and demand to see his birth certificate, Obama’s advisers laugh at it — those topics cannot win the GOP candidate’s White House race.

Instead, when, in his closing speech at Tampa convention, Romney stressed the disappointment among voters who elected President Obama in 2008, a shiver ran through Obama campaign officials in Chicago headquarters.

Romney’s appeal to “be not afraid” of leaving Obama to his own destiny and moving into Romney’s camp, his stressing on the point that, in the last four years — according to the GOP candidate — the president has not only not kept his promises, but has also disappointed all expectations, can be an effective, probably decisive, weapon.

This is Obama’s Achilles’ heel. And the president (but also the whole Democratic Party) should make the best use of the convention in Charlotte so independent voters can ignore the temptation offered by Romney.

President Obama actually has to change his communication strategy from the one he has followed so far, which was focused on attacking his contender and used to outline the dangers the middle class would endure if a Republican tied to Wall Street went to the White House, distracting the public from his accomplishments (limited according to critics, nonexistent for opponents) over the last four years.

President Obama can no longer represent himself as the one who can still speak of “change.” He knows it. What he can do is to explain to Americans that he is not, as many people think, the same old Washington politician who mocks his voters to have their approval, but rather the man who did what he was able to do to bring America back on the rails after the derailment caused by the 2008 crisis.

“If I hadn’t been there, it would have been worse. If I am not there, it will be worse for you”: this is the summary of the message to the middle class that the president should send out from the Democratic convention’s stage.

Will it be enough? The latest polls show that the Tampa effect didn’t reward Mitt Romney that much. Ahead of President for a few days, Romney has slipped behind again by a point. Beyond the recent disclosures, however, the last weeks of campaign will be decisive to settle the election race.

In Charlotte, Barack Obama aims to take a run, despite his slack campaign. During the three days of convention, two main figures will help him: Michelle, the first lady, whose public acceptance is sound — unlike her husband. Then, Bill Clinton, who remains one of the highly regarded political figures in the United States. His speech will be important because it could be decisive to persuade centrist voters not to leave Barack Obama.

During the convention, the Democrats could profit from an investigation for tax avoidance — the existence of which was revealed by the New York Times — on some of the leading private equity firms in the United States. This includes Bain Capital, founded by Mitt Romney, who officially left the firm a decade ago.

The investigation was set up by New York’s left-wing Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, to check if those firms have violated the tax code to avoid paying millions of dollars of taxes.

The Democratic Party’s representatives’ attacks against Mitt Romney are well-known, accusing him of fraud and asking him to disclose his earlier tax returns. The New York investigation does not affect the Republican candidate, but it is clear that it risks fueling the controversy over Romney’s relationship with Bain Capital.