The Republican National Convention has barely ended, and the Democratic convention has not yet begun, but already Democrats are lobbing an aggressive counterattack against Mitt Romney and his party.
For example, on the Saturday following the Republican convention, President Barack Obama offered his low opinion of the event. "It was a rerun," he said. "We'd seen it before. You might as well have watched it on a black and white TV."
A day later, David Plouffe—a senior White House adviser and the campaign manager for Obama's 2008 campaign—took an even harsher line. On ABC's This Week, he said the Romney campaign is "built on a tripod of lies." "A welfare attack that is just absolutely untrue," he said. "The suggestion we’re raiding Medicare—absolutely untrue. And then this whole 'we can build it' nonsense."
In the final two days leading up to the convention, Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi went on the attack as well. Their criticisms of the Romney campaign revolved around Medicare, which has become a major theme in the campaign.
"We are for Medicare; they are for Vouchercare," Biden said at a campaign stop, alluding to the Paul Ryan's proposal that single payer Medicare be replaced with a private voucher system. Pelosi echoed Biden's remarks on Labor Day, just one day before the convention, telling the audience at a pre-convention breakfast, "To vote for Medicare, vote Democratic."
The Democrats appear to be using such withering language in an attempt to undercut whatever PR advantage Romney may have gained from Republican National Convention coverage. If so, it's working: According to a recent Gallup poll, the Republican candidate received little to no post-convention boost.
