Fear's in the air. It's in Florida's air waves big time. Just about every GOP ad I see plays on fear or is telling me how awful our government is. It's old. It's tired. It's eye rollingly boring.
The problem with selling through fear is two fold. One problem is after hearing the same bogus fear mongering message over and over, the target stops feeling the fear. The other is that it only works on the people sort of sold on the idea in the first place. Overplay your hand and you'll lose credibility and end up looking silly. To hear Chuck Norris tell it, the U.S. is headed for 1,000 years of darkness if President Obama is re-elected to the Presidency. Despite the tin foil crowd lapping that one up, I fully expect to see a Chuck Norris skit on SNL this Saturday.
There's a profound difference between the GOP and the Democratic Party that didn't work in 2008 and I don't see it working in 2012 either. I see desperation and pleadings alternating with stuff that is best described as "out there" coming out of the GOP. How a Christian who thinks Armageddon is imminent thinks Obama can bring 1,000 years of darkness here on Earth is either unhinged or out there (maybe both). Berating an empty chair is in the realm of "out there", but Ann Romney's "I love you women!" was nutasticly twitty. This is a shame because Mr. Norris, Mr. Eastwood and Ms. Romney ostensibly have brains and should make better use of them.
Then there's the crude, rude attacks. No Democratic pundit wanna be tweeted "Let the Misogynistic Parade begin" or some such twaddle before the GOP convention. No Democratic Party commentator made outrageous statements about the whereabouts of some Republican Senator (who shall remain nameless) and a sexual encounter that never happened during the GOP convention. No that type of horsefeathers happened during the Democratic Convention by GOP commentators who have little or no impulse control.*
To hear the GOP tell it; GOP lies are ok. Romney pollster, Neil Newhouse defended lying when he said, "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers".
It may be ok for the GOP to lie, but let Obama's camp mislead and "oh, NO! That's not fair!" Romney surrogates are still going bonkers about an Obama Superpac ad that ran twice. An ad that hasn't been seen for weeks. Funny, I saw one Lyin Ryan ad today. Somehow it's ok for the GOP to out and out lie 10,000 times across a dozen or so markets, but a misleading ad about Romney and Bain Capital run twice is over the top.
Perhaps all this desperation, pleadings and all things "out there" are because, so far, the 100's of millions of dollars the GOP is spending aren't moving the polls as anticipated. Maybe, women see Romney's pals and their plans as detrimental to their health and people see women's health issues as part of the equation with women's economic issues. Maybe dreamers think they'll get a fairer shake from a candidate who has done what they could with the laws as they are. Could it be the average person in the street doesn't feel threatened about gay marriage? Are there enough fearful, angry people to heed the GOP call?
People like to hear about happy, positive ideas. The GOP message isn't positive. Not in the way President Obama was in his nomination acceptance speech. The GOP isn't happy. The GOP is still angry. The message, "You Suck!" followed up with the message of "Trust Me - We Don't Suck" isn't enough. The pleadings, "We really like woman, Latinos and black people....we really do!" isn't believable in light of the voter suppression and anti-women efforts going on. To complain that President Obama has no concrete plans while jobs bills (and more) passed by the Senate are ignored by the House defies credibility.
Now Ryan says let the states decide on marijuana? The guy who penned vouchercare wants to appeal to who? He is saying the states should regulate medical marijuana? He's saying if a state decriminalizes pot to the same status as a prescription drug - that's ok with him, but he's the same guy who thinks women (in consultation with their doctor) aren't capable of making decisions about their own bodies.
I'm not sure if that's desperate or out there.