TAMPA, Fla. — Democratic strategist Pat Cadell said President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is terrified about how many of his previous supporters are disaffected during remarks before a Tuesday screening of Citizens United’s new film “The Hope and The Change” at the Republican National Convention.
“This is what terrorizes the Obama campaign, not the attacks from Republicans and Romney,” Cadell said. “It’s the voice of the people who voted for him and are disappointed.”
Cadell and fellow Democratic strategist Kendra Stewart worked with the conservative Citizens United and filmmaker Stephen Bannon on making a documentary highlighting how it’s not just conservatives who think Obama has failed as president.
The film walks viewers through the stories of 40 Democrats and independents around the country who voted for Obama in 2008 are now disappointed in their choice for president.
The former Obama supporters open up about how they believe Obama has failed on everything from economic policies to health care to energy policy to how the president spends time and taxpayer money vacationing, golfing and enjoying leisure activities.
Citizens United President David Bossie told The Daily Caller at the screening that the film is “made to start a conversation.”
“It is really a film about and directed to disaffected Democrats and independents,” Bossie said, adding that there are many other disaffected Democrats and independents who don’t like Obama anymore.
“There’s only 40 in the film but there’s actually a lot more that didn’t hit the cutting room floor,” Bossie told TheDC. “It was really eye-opening. I think if people really listened to these people instead of just talking to them, we’d be a lot better off.”
In the movie, some of the former Obama supporters discuss how they believe Obama has divided the country with hatred, racial, gender and identity politics.
“The disappointment – the idea that they bought into the ‘hope’ that this would be a new kind of president, that he would bring the country together, they in fact think he’s been more of divider than George W. Bush,” Bossie said. “It’s more in sorrow than in anger. They bought into him. They wanted him.”
“We don’t know [if these voters will turn around and vote for Mitt Romney this year],” Bossie added. “We didn’t ask them. We think that they’re either not going to vote or that they’re leaning towards voting for Romney. There are some that may end up voting for Obama. We don’t know. This film is a snapshot in time and we’re intellectually honest about that.”
Bossie said the average American, regardless of his or her political beliefs, should take away from the film that “you have permission to vote the other way.”
“You’re not alone,” he said. “When you watch this film, somebody on the screen is someone you’re going to identify with and you’re going to say ‘that’s me.’”
“The mainstream media covers none of this,” Cadell said. “If anything, this film is a statement about what our politics does not discuss.”