Someone at the Republican National Commitee is probably kicking himself after inadvertently letting a Yahoo News reporter in on a private strategy session.
During the conference call, various Republican affiliates expressed concern that attacking President Barack Obama may prove too dangerous for the GOP.
“We’re hesitant to jump on board with heavy attacks” said Nicholas Thompson, vice president of Republican polling firm the Tarrance Group. “There’s a lot of people who feel sorry for him.”
Yahoo News reports that, “On the call — which Yahoo News was invited to attend because of a mistake by someone on the staff of the Republican National Committee — Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary for George W. Bush, encouraged Republicans to turn around the Democratic attacks lobbed at the GOP presidential candidates — Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, for starters — for ‘flip-flopping.'”
“When it comes to flip-flopping, Barack Obama is the king of flip-flopping,” added Fleischer. “You can offer that to anybody,” he suggested.
Thompson also noted that Obama’s Truman-esque campaign strategy of running against a do-nothing Congress may backfire, according to poll data collected by his company.
Tarrance found that while the public’s disapproval of Congress in general remains extremely low, 46 percent approve of their own representative, compared to Obama’s approval rating of 44 percent in the same survey.
“It’s a tough road for him when you look at those numbers,” Thompson said.
The same poll showed that 58 percent disapprove of Obama’s handling of relations with Congress.