Team Romney on offense at Biden event

Romney Campaign Conference Call


Liar, Liar Your Panties are  on Fire!!!!  Interesting conversation , but full of lies.

April 12, 2012 2:34pm

by Byron York Chief Political Correspondent

Mitt Romney's campaign bus circles the Exeter, New Hampshire hall where Vice President Joe Biden made a campaign appearance. (Photo: Josh McElveen WMUR)

It's called "bracketing," and it refers to the practice of a political campaign sending staff, staging events, and making news at the campaign appearances of rival candidates.  And today, in another sign that it intends to run an aggressive media campaign in the general election, the Romney camp launched its first bracketing operation aimed at Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden traveled to Exeter, New Hampshire for a speech at the Town Hall denouncing Romney's economic plan and promoting the Buffett Rule.  And what did Biden find outside Town Hall?  The Romney campaign bus.  "The bus is doing some laps around the venue," said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams in a call from Exeter.  "We're going to run an aggressive campaign that will highlight the failures of this administration in every city and state that we possibly can."

A few hours before Biden arrived, the Romney campaign also held a conference call, featuring former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, as well as some current Republican state officials, to knock down some of the points Biden had come to the state to make.  Sununu also went to the Town Hall for Biden's speech.

The point is to attract press coverage and make sure that accounts that would ordinarily be solely about Biden's event also feature comment from the Romney campaign.  It works.  A CNN account of the Biden speech, for example, included this:

Romney's campaign, which spent substantial resources to win the Granite State's first-in-the-nation GOP primary in January, held a conference call Thursday ahead of Biden's visit featuring prominent Romney supporters, including former New Hampshire governor John Sununu.
"Welcome to New Hampshire Joe Biden," Sununu said on the call. "It's a shame you don't know how to talk about jobs that America needs and it's a shame you haven't been able to create the jobs that America needs. We're still at 8% after 38 months of staying there. It's a travesty the Obama administration has been unable to do anything to inspire investment that creates jobs in this economy."
Sununu, along with Romney spokesman Ryan Williams, were also present at the speech to speak with voters and members of the media.
"We will be there to discuss the Obama Administration's abysmal economic policies and failed fiscal agenda," Williams said.

During the Republican primary campaign, Romney surrogates sometimes bracketed their GOP opponents' events, a practice that irritated intra-party rivals.  But now, after the withdrawal of Rick Santorum from the race, the Romney campaign is free to devote its energies to bracketing and other rapid-response work aimed at Democrats.  And it is promising much more. "We're not going to let the Democrats get away with distorting Gov. Romney's record," says Williams.  "We're going to run a strong and nimble campaign."