InTheCapital

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Mitt Romney’s new ad is pretty dynamite. The 30 second spot is comprised almost completely from a 1997 broadcast of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. In it, Brokaw announces Newt’s ethics violations in Congress and raises questions about his effectiveness as a leader in the future.

The ad is brilliant as it delivers a gut punch to Gingrich while keeping Romney’s hands clean. Brokaw is also one of America’s most trusted journalists, and one respected and revered by an older generation of voters.

NBC and Brokaw, however, have taken issue with the ad, asking for Romney’s campaign to pull the spot as they don’t want to their journalism to be a mouthpiece for any campaign.

Zeke Miller of BuzzFeed had

“I am extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad,” Brokaw said in a statement released by the network. “I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign.” Brokaw’s response:

We totally see where Brokaw is coming from on this, but regardless of the outcome, it’s a pretty shrewd play from the Romney campaign and a pretty effective ad.

Obama Tests Out Chairs in the Oval Office

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Sure, Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich could make a serious run at Barack Obama and win this coming October…but they sure as hell won’t be dishing out orders and posing for photos in the Oval Office. According to reports from The Washingtonian, the storied Executive office in the West Wing may be out of commission for a bit.

From the Washingtonian:

While the exterior of the White House has had a lot of repair work done and the press room underwent a thorough renovation, other parts of the West Wing are old, weary, and need to be upgraded.

And it could take some time, too. A source told the Washingtonian that renovations could take up to a year to get done. Further proof that when you do construction at the White House, you don’t mess around. The source also added that most of the West Wing aside of the Situation Room (how else will we hunt the terrorists?) will be out of play as well. Of course, White House liaison, Gregory Mecher made sure to be as vague as possible in a classic, robot-like email on the subject. ““As we have done since the project began, GSA will continue to keep the public abreast of this project as it moves forward.”

But hey…we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We still have a Republican Primary and a General Election to deal with. Mitt is excited about it. Are you?

Images: www.doobybrain.com

www.mittromneyisatool.com

soupsoup:

Look who bought the top promoted tweet for “Romney Tax Returns”

This is how you use the promoted tweet in a campaign. Who knows if it’s actually effective…

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Let’s face it, Mitt Romney is going to win the Republican nomination for President. With that in mind, it’s important that entrepreneurs and DMV-area innovators know where the former Governor and Bain Capital executive stands on the important issues. Well, we picked up this gem buried slightly in today’s Potomac Tech Wire email and got excited to help spread the word that Mitt will be in Reston, VA on Feb. 10th to talk about his job plan and goals for tech innovation in the DC metro area and beyond. Tickets will run ya  $105 if you aren’t a member, but hey, it’s a chance to see the contender in the flesh.

More info here:

Join NVTC and Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) on Friday, February 10, for a Presidential Series breakfast featuring Republican presidential candidateMitt Romney. Romney won the recent New Hampshire Primary with 39.3 percent of the vote, and has 2-to-1 advantage over his closest competitors in the race for the Republican presidential nomination according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released January 17. After more than 20 years in the private sector, including heading Bain Capital and the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee, he served as governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007.

Link to register is here.

[Image via FrumForum]

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Oh, how we love us some good ole fashioned political bickering. The battle for the general election seems to be shaping up (read: is all but decided) for a Romney v. Obama showdown and with it will be come some finger-pointing, accusations, and hopefully some bulging forehead veins. Like in many areas this campaign season, the candidates have taken to the information superhighway to get their message heard. As the New York Times reports today, Mitt struck first in what will surely be the first of many Twitter skirmishes with David Axelrod responding acerbically.

In fact, it started innocently enough, just after noon, with a Twitter posting from @MittRomney, the Mitt Romney Twitter account.

@MittRomney Mitt Romney

More Americans have lost their jobs under@BarackObama than any president in modern history. http://t.co/CyCSpY9M

Mon Jan 16 17:27:13 via Mitt Romney

A few hours later, David Axelrod, the longtime strategist for President Obama, offered up a reply to Mr. Romney.

@davidaxelrod David Axelrod

. @MittRomney A picture’s worth a thousand misleading words. This chart tells the story.http://bit.ly/z4V0Us

Mon Jan 16 20:19:30 via David Axelrod

Mr. Axelrod included a link to a graph on the Obama campaign’s Web site, which cited the Bureau of Labor Statistics to show 22 consecutive months of job growth.

Axelrod has often proved himself to be a quick and incisive defender of Obama in the public forum (it is his job)…we at InTheCapital especially enjoy his use of ‘Dude’ to attempt to disarm top Romney advisor, Eric Fehrnstrom. For the record, there were over a dozen back and forth tweets between them on the subject. 

@davidaxelrod David Axelrod:

@EricFehrn Dude, none of my business, but shouldn’t you be in debate prep instead of trying to explain yourself to me?

This tactic is, of course, known as the ‘bro defense’, whereby one member of the argument invokes the use of the informal, ‘dude’ to seem like he/she doesn’t care as much about the subject at hand, thereby making him/her (Axelrod, in this case) seem, like, totally cooler. A savvy play indeed by Axe.