Overreach 3: You didn’t say that. … Oh, wait — you did.
For a number of weeks, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney had been on the defensive as the Obama campaign attacked hard, seeking to define the former Massachusetts governor and successful businessman as a wicked capitalist determined to suck the blood from hardworking Americans.
And no matter how untrue the attacks, or how hard Romney struggled, he stayed in those crosshairs. That is, until Obama overreached, saying,
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help — there was a great teacher somewhere in your life; somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive; somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that — somebody else made that happen.
Conservatives said Obama had finally confirmed what they’d been saying for years, and they drove the message hard, forcing Obama to run an ad charging that what he had said was being taken out of context — a dubious claim at best.
But with the heat off, Romney went on the full-offensive, launching ads, making speeches and sending out surrogates to attack the president’s un-teleprompted overreach.
Overreach 4: “Busted”
In a blast from the past, conservatives’ favorite mention — that Obama returned a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the U.K. — was resurrected from the dead by — you guessed it — self-righteous progressive overreach.
In response to an article by syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer that mentioned the infamous incident, White House Communication Director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted, “Krauthammer today recycles the false rumor that POTUS gave back the bust of Winston Churchill. Get the facts here.”
The problem is the facts are conclusive: Obama returned the bust. On Friday, Krauthammer devoted his column to demanding an apology. On Tuesday, Pfeiffer published one he had sent the columnist on the White House website. End game: A whole extra week of talking about Obama’s blockhead move all over again.
