Adventures of a Battleground State voter- "53% is the new 100%" edition

[bedsitter23]

Pretty quiet around these parts.

Now, Paul Ryan, Joe Biden, Ann Romney, and the presumptive 2016 nominees Martin O'Malley and Chris Christie have all made trips to Iowa in the last couple of weeks.

Still, all of these stories and their potential side-stories have been obscured from the headlines because of Mitt Romney's "47 percent" comment.

The most harmful thing about Romney's quote is actually not the quote itself.  Romney has made it pretty clear he's on the side of the Tea party and the Libertarians of his party (and if you still weren't convinced, he nominated Paul Ryan as his running mate.)  Instead, the quote has taken priority over any possible discussion that would have taken place in the last two weeks- anything Romney had to say about the economy, jobs, gas prices, etc.

John Kerry and Walter Mondale would be ashamed of the way Mitt is running his campaign.  This all follows a convention that was dominated by Clint Eastwood's performance of A Portrait of The President as a Young Chair.

So, we're left to the television ads then, and there have been a s#itload of them.

Here are the recurring themes-

-Before there was the "47 percent', there was Democratic Governor O'Malley's comment that we aren't better off than we were four years ago.  Both sides have hit this issue hard.  Romney's side with deficit graphs, and Obama showing a steady growth of jobs every month.
Obama brought out the big gun- Bill Clinton- explaining that we are better off with a Dem in the White House and you are either Team Bubba or Team Dubya

-An independent small businessperson who regrets her vote, and said it was a terible decision and things went south when the person she voted for took office.  And?  It's an Obama ad.  Romney has stuck with this theme through the campaign (expect more "Breaking Up with Obama" ads shortly.)  However, Obama is hitting back with a tale of a Massachusetts voter who saw her state fall to 47 th (there's that number again) in the nation in job creation under Romney's tenure.

-Both sides have run ads that say they will save Medicare.  When history is done and written, it will show Romney lost this election, because people thought he was going to eliminate Medicare.  I didn't find Romney's ads very convincing, and think if he is trying to have this conversation, he is losing.  On a side note, state and local Republicans have actually done better with this issue, framing it as 'we need to take the money marked for Obamacare and move it over to Medicare.'

-A liberal superpac is taking the Koch Brothers superpac ads to task, asking why would the Koch Brothers dump $80 million into trying to get Mitt elected, and what do they expect for their money.  I think it's a smart move for the Democratic playbook, and does work towards negating the Pro-Romney superpacs.  That ad calls the Koch's the Greed Agenda.

Anyway, that's the current state of things, though local television reported this week from a series of articles that Iowa is no longer in play.

Rasmussen does have Mitt up by 3, but ARG has Obama up by 7 and NBC/Wall Street Journal has Obama up by 8.  Average all the leading polls, and you show Obama with a pretty comfortable lead of 5-and-a-half points.

So, we may not get to see The Barry and Willard Show here again this year.