By Byron York
Barack Obama has led Mitt Romney in 21 of the last 25 head-to-head matchups counted by the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Now there are indications the long lead has gone to the presidents head.
To say that the Obama campaign doesnt fear Romney is an understatement -- hes viewed as almost a joke the Web publication BuzzFeed reported this week in an inside look at Obamas Chicago headquarters. As evidence of how hilarious the campaign finds Romney BuzzFeed reported Obama staffers have named their buildings elevators after cars in reference to the planned car elevator in Romneys California home.
When theyre not joking about car elevators some Obama staffers are reportedly obsessing over a nearly 30-year-old story about Romneys dog.
In 1983 Romney took his family on vacation and faced with a packed station wagon put his Irish setter Seamus in a travel kennel strapped to the roof of the car. Romney constructed a special windshield in an effort to make the dog more comfortable but Seamus ended up relieving himself on the roof which reportedly caused much consternation among the Romney boys. Ever since the story got out -- it was reported by the Boston Globe in 2007 during Romneys first run for president -- Romney opponents have used it in semiserious and sometimes fully serious ways to portray him as insensitive.
In late January for example top Obama campaign aide David Axelrod sent out a tweet that included a photo of Obama with his Portuguese water dog Bo in the back seat of the presidential limousine. How loving owners transport their dogs Axelrod wrote.
It wasnt a random comment. Theyre obsessed with the dog thing liberal journalist Chris Hayes said on his MSNBC program Sunday morning referring to the Obama campaign. And the reason is that I have heard in focus groups the dog story totally tanks Mitt Romneys approval rating.
That is what happens when a presidential campaign raises hundreds of millions of dollars: It has enough money to convene focus groups to ponder how Mitt Romney treated his dog decades ago.
Of course with a president facing a still-suffering economy a troubled war in Afghanistan and a signature accomplishment -- Obamacare -- that might be declared unconstitutional the experienced operatives at the Obama campaign have a lot of serious things to think about. For one thing even though the president is well into his bid for re-election he doesnt have much of an agenda for a second term.
Higher taxes? More green energy? Something on immigration? Obama has so little to talk about in terms of serious policy proposals that he and his Democratic allies are devoting a lot of energy to a new drive for the Buffett Rule the proposal that taxpayers who make more than $1 million a year pay their fair share -- at least 30 percent -- in federal income taxes. Its not a terrible idea and the world wouldnt end if it were enacted. Its just not very significant. A recent study by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the Buffett Rule would raise about $47 billion in new revenues over the next decade. Thats less than $5 billion a year -- not much when the annual federal budget deficit is $1 trillion. Basing an economic proposal on the Buffett Rule just isnt serious but at least its not car elevators and dog stories.
The Romney campaign is fully aware of the derision directed at Romney by the Obama camp. They dont know what the president himself thinks but they certainly believe the Obama campaign has no real respect for Romney either as a politician or a man. But theyre not particularly troubled by it because they suspect the end result will be that the Obama campaign will habitually underestimate Romney. When youre running for office its almost never a bad thing to be underestimated by your opponent.
Meanwhile politically savvy liberals outside the White House are worried that many perhaps most Democrats arent taking Romney seriously either. I wonder the degree to which Democrats and liberals and progressives are underestimating the formidable nature of the Romney campaign MSNBCs Hayes asked Bloomberg View columnist Jonathan Alter on Sunday.
Totally underestimating Alter replied. I run into people all the time who say Obamas got this. They dont know what theyre talking about.
Byron York The Examiners chief political correspondent can be contacted at
byork@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday and his stories and blogposts appear on washingtonexaminer.com.
