In the substantive criticisms of Obama, only one seems to stand out as a "gee, this really makes me mad." And that's his decision to walk away from Simpson Bowles. It was understandable at the time, less acceptable over the long term. But for all that, most of the left faults the attitudes, behaviors, and actions of Republicans in both houses. That's where the blame lies. Even many on the right at least concede the justice of that.
As Jim Rutenberg reports in the Times, both sides have "invested" a good deal of faith in Obama.
Through three nights of gauzy videos, sentimental testimonials and, finally, his own address to the nation Thursday, Mitt Romney worked hard to show he has a heart.
Mr. Romney worked hard to win over the hearts of Republicans this week. The bigger challenge lies ahead.
But he still needs to tackle the much harder job of convincing those Americans who so emotionally invested their hearts in President Obama four years ago that it is time to accept that his presidency did not work, let go of him and move on. ...NYT
Hearts? Maybe. But the kind of faith people feel in Obama is just the kind of faith Romney hasn't earned. It's not just about likability, it's about integrity. From the first moment Obama came on the scene in a convention speech almost a decade ago, he has come across as a straight shooter, trustworthy. We didn't need to turn to Obama's wife for reassurance. The guy just blew us away with his intelligence, decency, and his strong sense of direction.
Not even Mr. Romney’s own strategists are pretending that is going to be simple. And even before leaving the nominating convention here, they were beginning a delicate 10-week campaign aimed at those voters who are disappointed in Mr. Obama but just can’t yet bring themselves to quit him.
After month after month of disappointing job numbers, poll after poll showing dissatisfaction in his economic performance and hundreds of millions of dollars in negative advertisements, a large portion of wavering voters maintain a personal attachment to Mr. Obama, and a tentative willingness to give him more time to get it right, top strategists with both campaigns agree. ...NYT
I don't think a rambling, sometimes comic and sometimes pathetic peroration from Clint Eastwood did anything to shake that, no more than Romney's carefully scripted digs at the president. Romney -- Mr. Etchasketch, Mr. Bain, Mr. For-Profit-At-Any-Cost -- has a long way to go before he even understands what it is about Obama that inspires people's faith and affection.
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Neilson shows the RNC show last night had 20,000,000 viewers. I'm not sure (and will see if I can confirm this) but I think the last time Obama spoke at a convention -- in 2008 -- his ratings were precisely twice that. Even for State of the Union addresses, normally a snooze, Obama's ratings have been at least 30,000,000.
One interesting bit about last night's RNC show is that the viewers were largely "older." That's why the right is so worried -- so frantic it's trying to close the polls to voters on the left. Four years from now, a chunk of the viewership will have died and it doesn't look like younger people are scrambling to take their place as Republican viewers.
