Progressive Point of the Day: This is the first in a series of brief pieces that will offer suggestions to the Obama campaign and progressives on effective points to raise and ways to frame their argument. Consider it an advice column for Democrats, who have been having messaging problems for years. Despite the "Point of the Day" tag, it will not appear every day, but it will appear often between now and the election.
The Better You Know Him, The Less You Like Him
The Obama campaign has had considerable success in attacking one of Mitt Romney's two principal claims of having proven himself to be someone who can restore the economy and help middle-class Americans: his tenure as the head of Bain Capital.
Now it's time to unload the other barrel of the shotgun against the other claim: that Romney was a success while he was governor of Massachusetts.
Here's the best indicator of just how unsuccessful he was in that post: A few weeks ago, Massachusetts was the state in which Romney trailed President Obama by the largest margin, and it is presently the state in which he trails by the second largest margin.
In his home state, the former governor is now estimated to be 21 points behind the President.
Over the past half century, the victor in every presidential election won his home state and all but two (George McGovern in 1972 and Al Gore in 2000) of the losers won their home states.
Romney's current 36 percent support in Massachusetts is 21 percent less than the average home-state totals for the past twelve presidential winners and more than 15 points behind the home-state average for losing presidential nominees.
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