Obama campaign video teases new slogan: ‘Forward’

It looks like the Obama campaign may have settled on its slogan for the 2012 election: “Forward.”

Four years ago, Barack Obama ran on another one-word slogan, “Change.” Now, as President Obama prepares to hold the first public campaign rallies for his reelection, his team is giving a sense of what his pitch to voters will look like.

A seven-minute Web video (watch below) lays out what it says was the precarious state of the nation when Obama took office in 2009 and the steps he took to begin addressing the challenges. Republicans have attempted to argue recently that Obama is not running on his record, but the video indicates otherwise -- the economic stimulus efforts, the auto industry rescue, credit card and Wall Street reforms, healthcare reform, student loan reform, green energy investments, lower taxes for the middle class, equal pay for women and a repeal of the law banning gays from serving openly in the military make up the first half of the online advertisement.

“Hard work, determination, real results,” a narrator says.

But there’s then a pivot that signals how the president will use what Democrats see as Republican obstructionism as a foil. Images of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity flash by, and then one of Mitt Romney.

“Instead of working together to lift America up, Republicans were waging a campaign to tear the president down,” the narrator says. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, is also shown saying that Republicans’ “top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.”

The video then turns back to the president’s record, saying that despite the GOP efforts he “persevered here at home and as commander in chief.” That includes “the victory no one saw coming,” the killing of Osama bin Laden a year ago.

The advertisement winds down by again ticking off a laundry list of the administration’s accomplishments, before leading into the president’s recent speech in which he outlined a “make or break moment for the middle class.” And then the one-word slogan, “Forward,” complete with the Obama campaign signature “O” logo.

The video is set to be part of the program for Obama’s kickoff rallies on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Va. To give it some of the grass-roots shine of his 2008 effort, the rallies are also to feature photos of the president’s supporters on screen, explaining why they support his reelection.

The Republican National Committee attempted to quickly turn the possible slogan against Obama. It’s kicking off a Twitter campaign with arguments like this: “Under Obama’s budget, Americans can look #FORWARD to $1.9 trillion in higher taxes,” and “Under second term of Obama, we would look #FORWARD to another consecutive year of deficits over $1 Trillion.”

Original source: Obama campaign video teases new slogan: ‘Forward’