Obama Diverts, Distracts, and Divides


By Bradley Blakeman
Newsmax.com

Obama and his campaign have embarked on a re-election strategy that has three key components: 1. Divert, 2. Distract and 3.Divide.

Let’s examine each tactic used to date and what we can expect in the months ahead.

Divert: Divert attention away from Obama and his administration’s poor record, continue to blame Bush, and falsely attack Romney on his business record.

The Obama Campaign and its surrogates continue to blame Bush for all that ails us as a nation some three and a half years from him leaving office. 

This is what the left-leaning Center for Budget Policy Priorities put out in a news release this past week:

“The economic downturn, President Bush's tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq explain virtually the entire deficit over the next 10 years," according to the center. The major drivers of deficits through 2019, the center says, are "not of President Obama's making."

And even though Obama’s attacks on Bain Capital has brought the ire of Democratic big wigs like Mayor Booker of Newark and Former DNC Chair and Former Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania who have said that the Obama Campaign is wrong to attack venture capitalists and free market drivers — the Obama campaign has increased its attack on Bain to divert attention away from Obama’s own economic record.

The Obama Camp seeks to paint Romney as a corporate raider who maximizes his own profits at the expense of middle-class workers and is a bigger job-killer than job-creator. 

By Obama demonizing venture capitalists and free markets he diverts attention away from his own intervention in free markets when he nationalized GM and presided over the laying off of tens of thousands of auto workers and suppliers, closed entire auto divisions like, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn and Hummer and closed thousands of U.S. dealerships in order to return GM to profitability.

Distract: Distract the American people with issues like gay marriage and contraception instead on concentrating on his disastrous record on the economy.

It is a classic campaign tactic to distract the media and the public in order to avoid dealing head on with issues that are not favorable to your efforts — like the economy, unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcies, inflation, etc.

We have seen a classic diversion by the Obama campaign to rally their base and distract attention away from the economy and to social issues.

The Obama Camp embarked recently on an effort to pander to the gay community and women, when it advanced an attack on religion by mandating religious organizations to provide contraception free of charge to its healthcare-insured employees. 

The attack on religion was followed by a statement by President Obama in a prime time TV interview in which he stated that is views on same sex marriage have been the product of a personal “evolution.” This is what he said:

“I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

This is a 180-degree departure from what he believed as a candidate for president in 2008. Obama would have never had a chance to either be selected by his party or elected by the people had he “evolved” his present position on gay marriage in 2008.

Obama and his campaign staff believe that distraction is a key component to changing and controlling the news and making Republicans respond to issues that are incidental if not irrelevant to the issues that will decide the 2012 election.

Divide: Divide the American people and pit one against the other in a classic Democrat class warfare assault.

The most insidious of all Obama’s campaign tactics is the strategy of turning American against American.

The problems facing America are not the fault of the people, but rather the fault of a government that taxes and spends too much. A president who amasses more debt than any other POTUS in U.S. history and a president who could not produce a single annual budget despite having controlled the House, Senate and the White House the first two years in office must blame others for his own failures. 

The most likely suspects to blame for Democrats are the wealthy. Their “Robin Hood” theory of economics of taking from the rich and giving to everyone else is not only wrong but it is divisive and hurtful to our nation. We are all in this bad economy together. Every American is hurting.

A good example of the president’s tactic of division can be found in his own words:

“The free market has never been a license to take whatever you can from whomever you can,” he said. And “their philosophy is simple. We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.”

President Obama would much rather have the government take whatever it wants from whomever it wants and spend it however it sees fit — accountable to no one. Obama believes that America is better off when everybody is left to depend on government to provide for their needs and when Americans are dependent on government’s rules.

There is no doubt that in the weeks and months ahead that the Obama campaign will continue on a path of obstruction and confusion. If Obama had a record of accomplishment there would be no need for distraction, division or distortion.

He and his staff should be heralding healthcare, the economy, and foreign policy. The problem for Obama is that the current state of our union prevents that.

If there is to be any hope of being re-elected then Obama needs to change tactics.

When the dust settles in November, we will see that campaign tactics never trump a positive and effective campaign — one that sticks to the issues that matter, and refuses to be distracted, diverted, or divided on matters that don’t.

Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-04. He is currently a professor of Politics and Public Policy at Georgetown University and a frequent contributor to Fox News Opinion. Read more reports from Bradley Blakeman — Click Here Now.

© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.