Rick Foglesong

Review of Crossroads GPS 'Excuses' ad

July 25, 2012

Karl Rove and his American Crossroads super PAC are riding to the rescue of Gov. Romney this summer.  Rescuing him, one, because Obama campaign attacks have diverted Romney from his tried and true strategy of attacking the president’s economic stewardship, and two, because the donor money Romney has raised since locking up his party’s nomination can only be used in the general-election campaign, meaning after the Republican convention. 

American Crossroads and its tax-exempt affiliate Crossroads GPS, run by Carl Forti, who was Gov. Romney’s political director in 2008, have $400 million to spend this political season. By law, super PACs like Crossroads must be independent from presidential campaigns; they can’t coordinate their ad strategies with one another, but they can—and do—coordinate with other outside groups, all of whose donors are anonymous.

It’s this fact—the anonymity of their donors, meaning that their ads are exempt from the “stand by your ad” provision of federal election law that applies to the official presidential campaigns—that make these outside groups ideal vehicles for attacking the opposing campaign.  As happens on the Obama side, too.  

Under the microscope today is an ad entitled “Excuses.”   It’s the first wave of a $25-million advocacy effort that Crossroads started July 10 and will run through early August.  This well-produced ad shows Pres. Obama making statements that sound like excuses for the U.S. economy’s weak performance.  The first-shown and most cogent is about “headwinds from Europe.”

Data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, which represents industrialized nations with market economies, indeed show a pattern.  Jobless figures in the Euro zone, North America, and Japan track together—up and down-- and last month, our 8.2 jobless rate was about in the middle--better than the Euro zone’s 11.1 unemployment level, but not as good as Japan’s 4.4 jobless level. 

Evidently, in this global economy, our economic wellbeing depends on that of our trading partners.  When nominally U.S. firms shift jobs and investment overseas, as Gov. Romney’s firm Bain Capital is accused of doing, our economies become interdependent.  The refusal of either candidate to admit this is the presidential race’s biggest failing thus far.

Instead of making excuses, this ad says, Pres. Obama should focus on reducing the federal debt, as if he were the one responsible.  Well, not so fast.  According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the national debt is so large principally because of the Bush-era tax cuts and the cost of funding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.   New policies raised that debt $5.07 trillion under Pres. Bush and $1.44 trillion under Pres. Obama.

And besides, presidents (regardless of their party) can’t reduce the deficit by themselves.  Congressional action is needed, too, and right now, neither the Republican-controlled House nor the Democratic-controlled Senate wants to compromise on taxes and spending. 

[1]http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/us/politics/steering-the-rights-vast-money-machine.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

[2]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKJnwq1ySlY

[3]http://www.oecd.org/document/23/0,3746,en_2649_37457_50686268_1_1_1_37457,00.html

[4]http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24editorial_graph2.html?ref=sunday