The Democratic National Committee is aiming its tweets, emails, videos and rhetorical fire at Gov. Mitt Romney, while largely ignoring the other candidates.
“Mitt Romney has had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in Iowa,” the DNC declared Thursday, following a heated exchange between Romney and a few hecklers who jeered at his afternoon speech.
The DNC painted the exchange, which produced some GOP cheers for an aggressive and relaxed-looking Romney, as a “brutal” flub by the candidate. The party followed up during the evening with a video attack ad titled “Mitt Romney and the Luckiest People in the World.” It portrays Romney as sympathetic to heartless corporations.
Still, the Democratic PR machine had plenty of extra staff to go after Romney and put out a “Fact Check” claiming that Romney, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Gov. Tim Pawlenty had followed the “extreme wing” of the GOP in opposing the recent $2.4 trillion debt ceiling deal.
Other DNC emails and tweets showcased news reports containing story lines that are disadvantageous to Romney.
The party machine also kicked out an email aimed at Texas Gov. Rick Perry. “The real ‘Texas miracle’ is that the Governor dares talk about our jobs, after demanding a state budget that will lay off tens of thousands of our teachers and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs, claimed Texas Democratic Party Spokeswoman Kirsten Gray. “For Rick Perry, the only job that matters is his own — and starting Saturday, he can finally be honest about why he’s spent the entire year ignoring the problems he created at home.”
The DNC tried to shape the media coverage by sending out a late-afternoon memo from Melanie Roussell, the DNC’s national press secretary.
“Instead of a new approach that puts party aside and America first, we hear a rigid and extreme ideology that asks working and middle class families to carry the entire load. … [GOP candidates are] driven in large part by their willingness to let the extreme Tea Party dictate the Republican Party’s agenda and take over the party, with the 2012 Republican candidates following their lead,” said her statement.
The memo pitched themes intended to shape voters’ and reporters’ attitudes towards the eventual GOP candidate. One painted Republicans as reluctant to lead.
“The Republican presidential contenders have fully embraced what we call the Duck, Dodge and Dismantle approach to leadership,” read the memo, “because they are ducking their obligation to the Middle Class; dodging their obligation to our nation’s seniors; and, they want to dismantle critical education and job creation programs.”
Another portion of the DNC memo was directed at older Americans, a voting bloc critical to candidates in Florida and other states.
“Extreme Aims toward America’s Seniors … each of the Republicans running for president has proven that their priority is not standing up for seniors or America’s middle class; their priority is protecting the wealthy and the special interests.”
To keep the many journalists now in Iowa fed with quotes and video, the Democratic National Committee is using the Smoky Row Coffee Shop in Des Moines to present Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Rep. Leonard Boswell and officials of the Iowa Democratic Party. They will discuss “the disastrous GOP agenda” at a 10:30 a.m. roundtable event prior to the Saturday straw poll in Ames.