A reader writes:
The real question of this election is
experience" narrative, and it's unclear whether that's working or whether it's even the right narrative to build. I'm not sure what sort of narrative Obama is trying to build. Maybe it's "we inherited bad conditions, and have made good progress, so don't change horses mid-stream". But that's clearly not as concise or digestible as "business experience". Basically, Obama has done a poor job thus far crafting a positive narrative.
On the other hand, Obama has done a very good job crafting a negative narrative for Romney. That is, "he's rich/out of touch and doesn't care about you". And so far that's stuck. Romney, however, has not done a very good job at creating a negative narrative for Obama. The Republican party hasn't been interested in an honest narrative since day one of his presidency. Instead they screamed about socialism and Obama's secret desire to strangle the precious, vulnerable America-our-founders-dreamed-of. That's the narrative Romney has to work with; he has no way around it.
And so to the extent Obama's gaffes don't easily fit that narrative, Romney's in trouble. Indeed, most of Obama's gaffes don't fit easily into that narrative.
Obama's playing the long game, and has NOT spent like a socialist since day one, etc. Eventually independents will tune in and realize the socialist narrative is bunk.
This all stemmed from Obama's "private sector is fine" gaffe. I think that gaffe is unlikely to hurt Obama in the long run, no matter how many times Romney runs ads on it. It's not part of the "socialist" narrative and Romney can't construct an "out of touch" narrative at this point: the polling shows independents wouldn't believe him. Whereas Romney's response about firemen and teachers and policemen is likely to hurt Romney. It fits his negative narrative perfectly.
The Dish 