For those longing for the heady days of the 2008 US Presidential campaign, when people believed in “hope” and “change,” the 2012 US presidential race is turning back time, though not necessarily in a good way.
Perhaps believing that his own ads against US President Barack Obama lacked authority, Republican Mitt Romney pulled out the big guns: Hillary Clinton.
Digging up some vintage footage from the intense Hillary-Barack rivalry in the 2008 Democratic nomination fight, Romney used the popular US secretary of state’s then-words to blast her now-boss. The video, which includes the stinging line “Shame on you Barack Obama,” was a hit, garnering hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
Viral Video of the Week:
But Democrats may find comfort in Romney’s decision to use Clinton, because it plays into a recent campaign theme of their own: that Romney doesn’t have answers of his own. For weeks, the Obama camp has taken him to task for criticizing policies without offering any better alternatives. He knew he disagreed with Obama’s decision to enact part of the DREAM act on illegal immigration, but he would not commit to a policy of his own. He disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling on healthcare, arguing that the individual mandate wasn’t a tax, but then decided it was. That’s why democrats thought it would be a good idea in recent weeks to use Twitter to trend the term #QuestionsThatStumpMitt.
Why Did You Pass Healthcare Reform w/ Mandate in 2006, Urge Obama to Include it in 2009, & Run Against it in 2012? #QuestionsThatStumpMitt
— TheNewDeal (@TheNewDeal) June 26, 2012
Why would the same policies that failed for Bush work for you? #QuestionsThatStumpMitt #P2
— ཨོཾ་མ་ནི་པ་དམེ་ཧུཾ (@ephemeralobject) June 26, 2012
But, of course, it’s easy enough to turn Twitter wars around, as one Tweeter so avidly declared, and soon #QuestionsThatStumpObama was trending as well.
Name one successful thing Obama has done. #QuestionsThatStumpMitt
— el SOOPer (@SooperMexican) June 26, 2012
#QuestionsThatStumpObama Why was raising lots more money than your opponent a good thing in 2008 but an outrage in 2012?
— LisainDallas (@LisainDallas) June 26, 2012
What's a "constitution?" #QuestionsThatStumpObama
— Resist Tyranny (@ResistTyranny) June 26, 2012
Tweet of the Week:
#QuestionsThatStumpObamaWhen are liberals going to learn that conservatives now own Twitter and we win every hashtag game?
— rob b (@rovibe71) June 26, 2012
Politics, after all, is the art of the possible, and alliances and political positions can shift faster than quicksand. Just ask Obama: Before he put Hillary Clinton on his cabinet, he blasted her for her stance on Healthcare. The problem Obama had with Clinton’s health policy, Buzzfeed recalls is that it required everyone to buy health insurance. Is that even constitutional? To quote the mailer, it “just doesn’t make sense.”
But, then, does politics ever?
#USelections2012 offers weekly insight into the US presidential election through a social media lens, tracking candidates as they try to reach 270 electoral votes in 140 characters or less.
The writer is a Breaking News editor and blogger at The Jerusalem Post. Read his blog ‘The Bottom Line’ here.