Colorado shooting yields no reprieve in Obama-Romney combat in Ohio
CLEVELAND – Truce? What truce?
President Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney each declared a sort of political de-escalation after the Colorado movie theater massacre on Friday. They pulled TV attack ads in Colorado, and their normally combative public remarks came to a sudden halt.
But anyone who switched on a television here in Ohio over the weekend was subjected to a relentless bombardment of 30-second attack ads run by Obama, Romney and their “super PAC” allies – typically eight 8 or 10 negative spots per hour.
In Cleveland, one of the Obama ads that aired most often was the one featuring Romney singing “God Bless America” off-key as words flash by accusing him of shipping jobs to Mexico, India and China while stashing millions in a Swiss bank account and tax havens in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
Also ubiquitous: Obama spots saying Romney would deny insurance coverage for birth control and outlaw abortion in cases of rape and incest.
Then there was the Romney ad saying that Obama squandered economic stimulus money on campaign supporters, such as the Solyndra solar power company, and on windmills from China and electric cars from Finland.
Another Romney ad sought to discredit the Obama attacks by citing such sources as the Washington Post calling some of the president’s accusations false. It says Obama told “vicious lies” during his 2008 race against Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, who is shown saying back then: “Shame on you, Barack Obama.”
Some of the harshest attacks came from the super PACS. Ads run by Priorities USA, aligned with Obama, contended that Romney made millions of dollars by driving companies into bankruptcy and laying off thousands of workers.
American Crossroads, a Republican group, ran commercials denying Obama’s allegations about Romney shipping jobs overseas and hammering the president about unemployment above 8% and the growing national debt. The Republican National Committee weighed in with an ad saying Obama’s big plans to fix the economy had failed, so it was “OK to make a change.”
With some ads from both sides drawing poor marks from news media fact checkers, bewildered viewers were left to sort out the truthful from the false or the misleading.
The vitriol was not in keeping with the tone that Obama and Romney each tried to set after the Colorado shooting. On Friday morning, Obama scratched plans to attack Romney at a rally in Florida, telling the crowd instead, “There are going to be other days for politics. This, I think, is a day for prayer and reflection.”
And at a San Francisco fundraiser on Sunday night, Romney – who is normally caustic in all of his remarks about Obama – offered rare praise for the president. “He’s visiting with families of the victims, which is the right thing for the president to be doing on this day, and we appreciate that,” Romney said. “I will note that my remarks today will not be as partisan as normal.”
As for the rationale behind yanking TV attack ads in Colorado, while pressing ahead with full-scale broadcast warfare elsewhere, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul had no immediate comment.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt declined to comment.
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