Obama hits Romney for ... calling for increased defense spending

[ProSense]

Obama hits Romney for ... calling for increased defense spending

By Greg Sargent

I mentioned this yesterday. But it really deserves to be pointed out at more length that the new Obama campaign ad — which is running in six swing states — actually hits Mitt Romney for favoring an increase in defense spending, which isn’t an attack you often hear Dems making:

The ad says:

You watched and worried. Two wars. Tax cuts for millionaires. Debt piled up. And now we face a choice. Mitt Romney’s plan? A new $250,000 tax cut for millionaires. Increase military spending. Adding trillions to the deficit. Or President Obama’s plan: a balanced approach. Four trillion in deficit reduction. Millionaires pay a little more.

When is the last time a Democrat attacked a Republican for advocating an increase in defense spending?

This says a good deal about what the Obama team thinks about the state of public opinion right now. The ad’s goal is to associate Romney directly with George W. Bush — specifically, with the nexus of Bush adventurism abroad and the Bush deficit — without mentioning Bush’s name. The ad is about fiscal policy, but it’s also meant to suggest that Romney would continue Bush’s approach to foreign policy, and that we can’t afford to go that route again. The calculation seems to be that the war weariness of the American public — and the public’s awareness of the role of Bush’s wars in driving up the deficit — make it politically safe, or even a potential winner, to call out Romney’s proposed increase in defense spending as fiscally reckless.

The Obama team’s thinking seems to be that the public is open to an argument against prioritizing defense spending in lean times, particularly if it would mean cutbacks to other priorities. A CBS/NYT poll from February found that when forced to choose between cutting defense, Medicare, or Social Security, a majority, 52 percent, picked defense. Gallup has found the public consistently thinks we spend too much on defense, rather than too little. William Saletan compiles more polling evidence along these lines right here.

- more -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/obama-hits-romney-for--calling-for-increased-defense-spending/2012/08/01/gJQAizMjPX_blog.html

[oldhippydude]

1. its going to very hard for the Republicans to play the defense card

against the man who "got Osama"... especially when a major motion picture comes out mid October documenting it.. President Obama may very well go down in history alongside JFK and pt 109

[ProSense]

2. True, but

they'll try anything in desperation: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021054832

[oldhippydude]

3. maybe it's just me

but i sense desperation 100 days out... i don't ever remember a candidate so outclassed as Willard... and yes i'm old enough to remember Mc Governs campaign