I haven’t been able to follow much news since Friday because I’ve been behind the wheel of a car for hours on end every day. However, I just loaded up HootSuite to see this tweet:
pool corrects: Romney camp raised 10 million over the last 2 days (yesterday and today) not 10 day
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) July 23, 2012
Um, I might venture a guess that it means some constituencies around the country don’t have much faith in Obama’s response to the issues of the last few days. It seems to be a perfect storm to prompt a few groups to action.
Gun Owners: We’re a given. Gun owners are worried about what kind of gun control may be headed our way. Bloomberg was out of the gate with demands for more gun control before many on the East Coast had even tuned in to the morning news. The typical anti-gun leaders have been all over the media calling for more action. Don’t even get me started on the crap on social networking sites – celebrities wondering why guns are still legal at all in America and some pretty hateful comments from political activists. Most pundits agree that it’s not going to happen, but we need to see what they are going try rally support to ban.
Conservatives of All Stripes: Thanks to Brian Ross, everyone who has any opinion that maybe the country’s financial house could be in better order with less spending was attached to this plot inaccurately. The fact that a major media outlet would allow a reporter to go on the air with such a patently false and poorly “researched” assertion cemented in the minds of many voters that the media will go to any length to discredit a conservative message. The fact that Brian Ross still has his title of “Chief Investigative Correspondent” when he clearly is not capable of seriously investigating even the simplest of facts before going to air with such slander against a private citizen only adds fuel to the fire.
So, the great irony in this situation is that Obama might not actually have to do a thing in order to motivate the GOP base and GOP-leaning voters for Mitt. His base and perceived surrogates are doing a great job at convincing voters to flock to the other guy if this fundraising haul is any indication.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if Romney used this tragedy to point out that most of these mass murders involve people with serious untreated (although usually recognized) mental illness problems? He would simultaneously deflect attention (at least a little) from gun control and show that compassionate concern for the suffering isn’t a Democratic Party monopoly.
An interesting idea; issues I see:
As of now, this seems to be a poor way to buy votes (i.e. that’s why we’ve seen an acceleration of closings during the Great Recession, including one facility just north of me).
It would require a great deal of explaining to get the point across and it’s mostly a state issue. I.e. good for the bully pulpit later, maybe not so good now.
It would take away from the focus of the campaign on sharper, more incisive issues. E.g. Obama and/or his White House leaking critical national security data (even burning one of our ally’s agents!), that’s easy to understand.
He’d have very very to avoid invoking the Bush family “kinder and gentler nation” and “Compassionate Conservatism”, which were explicit rejections of Reagan, the base, limited government, etc.
Come to think of it, the last thing he needs to say is anything about health care except that he’s going to terminate Obamacare with extreme prejudice. Due to Romneycare and it’s already apparant failings that’s perhaps his worst area.
Circling back to this incident, it’s not clear any reforms would have caught this guy, especially with the mother denying she said “You’ve got the right person” about her son, instead of herself when reached on the phone at 2 am or so. Most of us are accepting her lawyer’s account vs. the MSM’s (ABCs?) claim.
$5 million a day? 106 days to go until election day.
That’s a lot of money.
I couldn’t help it, but after the recent politico uprising I had to go out and start configuring a new AR-15 rifle. I’ve avoided the other blood dances, but this one feels different to me.
I’m with Uncle on Brian Ross.