United Liberty

A new story from Neil Munro at the Daily Caller is making the rounds of the blogosphere. The main focus of the article is that Obama’s new strategy will be to paint Mitt Romney as a radical libertarian, which to actual libertarians is so laughable it’s genuinely sad. But I’m sure my colleagues are going to tackle that main point, and I will certainly get to it in just a bit. But there are some things that immediately jump out at me I feel need to be focused on.

First, there’s this tidbit, which I emphasized in bold:

President Barack Obama is previewing his next strategy in the 2012 campaign — an audacious effort to paint former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and the majority GOP as radical libertarians that have abandoned mainstream American politics.

Since 2000, “we [Democrats] haven’t moved that much… What’s changed is the Republican Party,” Obama told a group of wealthy donors gathered Monday night at a New York town-house owned by Marc Lasry. Lasry is a billionaire equity-capitalist who runs a $20 billion fund that buys up the shaky assets of failing companies.

Wait wait wait. So one of Obama’s biggest donors is the Democratic Romney? Seriously? Well, I guess we know the real reason Obama has decided to junk the anti-Bain narrative: donors were unhappy. But still, there’s something deliciously ironic in that one of Obama’s chief financial supporters is in the same line of work Mitt Romney was in before he entered politics, and which the Democrats initially tried to slam him for. Hypocrisy, much? Maybe just this once they looked in the mirror. Just this once.

The other point, on the second page and near the end, is just hilarious for its perfect juxtaposition:

For example, a Gallup poll released June 4 shows Romney leading Obama by 49 percent to 45 percent among voters earning between $36,000 and $90,000. Romney also leads Obama by the same 49 percent to 45 percent among wealthier voters.

Moreover, polls regularly show that the public wants smaller government and lower taxes, even though they also want a strong federal safety net.

Attendees paid $40,000 per plate to the June 4 fundraiser to hear Obama say the GOP is out of the mainstream. “We’re not the ones who changed,” he said.

Obama will likely repeat the message when he returns to New York on June 14 to attend another high-dollar fundraiser with the city’s fashion-industry elite, including Vogue’s editor, the British-born Anna Wintour.

Pardon me while I take a minute to reinsert my intestines, because I did indeed laugh that hard.

Considering that the average household income for Americans was just $33,000 last year, a guy who throws a party that costs the average American on Main Street more than one year of working just to get in calling his opponents “out of the mainstream” is, well, for lack of a better word, rich.

If anyone is out of the mainstream, it’s Obama and the Democratic Party’s leadership. Romney is not really in touch with the mainstream American either, but as evidence by his leadership among average voters, he’s definitely closer.

At this point, Obama is just grasping at straws. I don’t think he’ll find one by the time November rolls around.