President Obama's camp has leaked its campaign strategy, and it appears the president will launch "a ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney's character and business background, a strategy grounded in the early stage expectation that the former Massachusetts governor is the likely GOP nominee," according to a piece by Politico's Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin posted online Tuesday.
The Obama campaign has even looked to George Bush's campaign against Sen. John Kerry for tips on how incumbents with mediocre polling numbers can get re-elected, the piece said.
"Unless things change and Obama can run on accomplishments, he will have to kill Romney," said an important Democratic political strategist in Politico's article.
One major aspect of the Obama camp's onslaught on Romney will be portraying "the public Romney as inauthentic, unprincipled and, in a word used repeatedly by Obama's advisers in about a dozen interviews, 'weird,'"
The Romney camp fired back at Obama's leaked strategy after the article was published.
"It is disgraceful that President Obama's campaign has launched his re-election with the stated goal to 'kill' his opponent with an onslaught of negative and personal attacks," Romney's campaign manager Matt Rhoades said in a statement on Tuesday.
Based on the nature of the Politico report, some are speculating that Obama might even go after Romney's faith,
"Taking Mormonism off the table is actually taking the weirdest thing about Mitt Romney off the table," wrote Alex Pareene of Salon.com. "Because otherwise Mitt Romney is a standard-issue moderate-to-right wing Northeast Republican straight from central casting. Rich guy, scion, private sector experience, nice hair.
"Mormonism, though! That's weird, to a lot of people. And I'm trying not to be unfair to Mormons ... So my verdict is that Mitt Romney is not that weird, except for his religion, but I also think most religion is pretty weird. Prove me wrong, Obama campaign! Prove Mitt Romney's 'weirdness.'"
The Obama camp, however, denied that Politico's article provided any real insight into their campaign strategy.
"Anyone purporting to hold a crystal ball for our strategy suggesting otherwise does not speak for the campaign," said the Obama Campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt in a statement. "The crocodile tears from the Romney campaign, which has been nothing but negative, do not pass the credibility test.
Whether Politico's report reflects Obama's true strategy remains to be seen, yet regardless Politico's article lends additional support to an idea reported last week by Real Clear Politics in an article by Erin McPike titled, "Democrats Train Their Sights on Romney."
"In gearing up for President Obama's re-election battle next year, party operatives have directed the bulk of their energy toward beating up on the former Massachusetts governor," reported McPike. "With a number of strong Republicans opting not to run and some in the race failing to get traction, Romney has become a singular target for the party in power."
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