Payoffs Vs. Layoffs

That is the Romney campaign’s theme for this week, and it is a powerful one–as we have noted many times, the Obama administration has used the stimulus bill, its “green” energy initiatives and other programs to enrich its campaign donors and political allies. The Romney campaign released this ad, “Political Payoffs and Middle Class Layoffs,” today:

The theme is an important one, but the execution, in my opinion, needs improvement. The problem with the ad, to some degree inherent because it is only 30 seconds long, is that it lacks specifics. It therefore won’t be very persuasive to voters who are not already familiar with the Obama administration’s record of cronyism. One hopes that the Romney campaign will build on the theme and become more specific as the week goes on.

This morning on Fox and Friends, Romney had this to say:

FOX NEWS’ STEVE DOOCY: I read in the Washington Post this morning that you want to draw attention to Obama’s political payoffs versus the middle class layoffs where you say, if you are a donor to the Obama camp you are going to do just fine. However if you are in the middle class Governor, your camp says, you got to worry about your job.

ROMNEY: There is no question but that when billions upon billions of dollars are given by the Obama Administration to the businesses of campaign contributors, that is a real problem particularly at a time when the middle class is really suffering in this country. I don’t know whether you watched over the weekend, the report that was in The New York Times about families really struggling particularly those that are single parents that are just having a hard time making ends meet. This is a tough time for the people of America. But if you are a campaign contributor to Barack Obama, your business may stand to get billions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from the government. I think it’s wrong. I think it stinks to high heaven and I think the administration has to explain how it is they would consider giving money to campaign contributors’ businesses.

UPDATE: You can follow the Twitter commentary at #Political Payoffs and Middle Class Layoffs.

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