As we’ve pointed out time and again, the corrupt media is currently desperate to shift the conversation of the presidential race away from the economy and on to turf that might win their failed president a second term. Namely, the identity politics of race, which has been disguised as “immigration policy” and has been an obsession of Obama’s Media Palace Guards for the last ten days.
It’s a trap.
The media currently coordinating with the White House knows it’s a trap.
Thank God, though, Mitt Romney knows it’s a trap and refuses to play.
As a result, the media’s narrative focus has now laughably turned away from immigration policy and towards Romney refusing to talk about anything but the economy.
This is a media narrative borne of desperation for two reasons:
1. Polls show that the last ten days have done nothing to move the needle in Obama’s direction.
2. If the focus stays on the economy, Obama loses.
Time’s Michael Crowley bared all of the corrupt media’s backside this morning with a high-profile feature titled: “One-Note Mitt: Is Romney Too Focused on the Economy?”
However the Supreme Court rules on Barack Obama’s health care law this week, it’s still the economy that will likely determine the president’s fate–or so Mitt Romney’s campaign says. The presumptive Republican nominee’s advisers call the election “a referendum on Obama’s handling of the economy.” With almost comical discipline, Romney steers virtually every topic back to Obama’s economic record. In a speech to Latino leaders last week, for instance, Romney dodged some key immigration policy questions while harping on Obama’s failure to create more jobs: “Is the America of 11% Hispanic unemployment the America of our dreams?” he asked. “Why would you talk about anything else,” one prominent Republican recently asked NBC News. And perhaps it’s as simple as that.
But what if it’s more complicated than that? Two recent presidential elections are remembered primarily as referendums on an ailing economy that cost an incumbent his job-Ronald Reagan’s 1980 defeat of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton’s win over George H.W. Bush in 1992. But while we remember the defining slogans, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” and “It’s the economy, stupid,” both those contests were more complicated in ways that should give Barack Obama some comfort.
Even so, Reagan’s campaign wasn’t singularly focused on Carter’s economic record. Reagan extensively blasted Carter on…
And blah, blah, blah and “Do you want candy and a ride home, little boy?”
Crowley then goes on to try to convince Mitt Romney that staying focused on the economy might be a losing a strategy.
Did I mention it’s a trap?
My main concern is that Republicans might follow Peggy Noonan’s strategically foolish move and begin to fall right into this trap. Last week, in her weekly Wall Street Journal column, Noonan said it’s time for Romney to present policy specifics — which gave the left-wing Politico all kinds of pleasure.
Conservatives should rejoice over the spine of steel Romney is showing under this pressure and not let themselves give into it — even off the record.
No good can come from Romney giving the corrupt media the specifics it demands. Only pain. First off, you don’t need specifics to govern when you have a philosophy. Second, another word for “specifics” is “suicide.”
The media wants specifics for the same reason Obama wants specifics: to use as weapons with which to bludgeon Romney to death. Look at what’s happened over the last ten days. The corrupt media and White House have created an Immigration Death Star with which to destroy Romney, should he be foolish enough to play their game.
Romney will release the policy specifics he wants to release when he wants to release them. And if and when he does so, it will likely be from an offensive position, not a defensive one.
In the meantime, Obama’s Media Palace Guards can go pound sand and make as big of fools as they want of themselves trying to convince Romney he should talk about what they want to talk about and not the only issue voters are concerned with.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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