Friday, October 19, 2012

Why the "Romnesia" meme seals the deal

Whoever came up with the Romnesia meme needs to have their own place of honor in the history of this campaign. There are a several reasons why this one hits it outta-the-park so thoroughly.

First of all, Romney's etch-a-sketch of himself since the first debate was nothing short of stunning. And yet the media seemed to be allowing him to get away with it and some recently tuned-in voters were buying it.

Who wants to hear President Obama having to spend a lot of time pointing out the differences between what Romney said on one occasion and then completely contradicted himself later? Boring! They needed a meme for that. Hence...Romnesia. By the end of today, almost every voter in the country will know what that means.

Secondly, it fits a theme that has already been developed about Romney's biggest liability - being a flip-flopper. That's one of the reasons it will catch on so quickly and cement the idea in voter's minds.

The third - and perhaps most important reason this works so well is something Steve Benen nailed.
There are a lot of ways to go after a rival, some more aggressive and abrasive than others, but to paint an opponent as someone who deserves to be literally laughed at may be the most brutal approach of them all.
This is quintessential Obama. He's not the type to be good at aggressive or abrasive. But he's great with using humor against his opponents. If you doubt that, take a look at my very favorite moment from the 2010 elections when President Obama went to Nevada to stump on Sen. Harry Reid's behalf against his opponent Sharon Angle.



He's really good at this!!!!

Besides that - after a brutally long campaign that he has been waging while carrying on his responsibilities as President (not to mention as husband and father), I'm sure it boosts his energy to be able to have a little fun with all this. And boy...in that speech today where he rolled out the Romnesia meme - it was clear that he was having a blast with it. Great stuff!

Finally, complaining about your opponents flip-flops sounds like a whiny looser. Laughing at him for them is a sure sign of a winner.

So enjoy yourself with this one Mr. President. You sound like a winner to me!

3 comments:

  1. You forgot to mention the awesome punch line of his speech today in VA. Check it out, people:


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  2. Speaking about an aspect of Religion Thomas Jefferson said:

    "Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."

    Romney's constant lies, evasiveness, flip-flops & all round weasely conduct (exemplified by his pallin' around with birthers) render him an 'unintelligable proposition' as President.

    It makes no sense to take his shape-shifting seriously. He deserves to be mocked and ridiculed for it.

    It's been sweet, especially coming right after Romney got the balance of 'self-deprecating' and 'roasting' so badly wrong last night at the Al Smith Dinner, but a jokey meme can't seal the deal, imo.

    Finally getting the facts about Obamacare through people's thick skulls probably would. Crushing Romney in the Foreign Policy debate might.

    What 'Romnesia' *can* help do very effectively is alert all those people who only recently started getting interested in this election, to just how much of a chameleon Romney is.





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