Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Associated Press
NEW YORK
Add Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker to the long list of political stand-ins for both President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney who’ve veered wildly off message in a presidential contest notable for its attention-grabbing gaffes.
An Obama backer, Booker forced the president’s campaign into damage-control mode over the weekend when he called its attack on Romney’s tenure at a private-equity firm “nauseating.” It didn’t take long for Republicans to highlight the comment and for the Democratic mayor to try to clean up the mess he caused by releasing a YouTube video in which he said it was fair for Obama to make Romney’s business record a campaign issue.
Obama weighed in Monday as the dust-up lit up social-network sites, calling Booker an “outstanding mayor” but insisting he would continue to talk about Romney’s experience at Bain Capital.
“It’s important to recognize this issue is not a distraction,” the president said. “It’s part of the debate we are having in this election.”
The episode, which delighted Republicans while causing a headache for Obama, illustrated the difficulty a presidential candidate faces in controlling his or her message in the era of YouTube and Twitter. It also raised questions about how much campaigns should be held responsible for what their supporters — known as “surrogates” in political-speak — say or do.
“Maintaining message discipline with surrogates has always been a challenge of the modern campaign. In the era of social media it is an exercise in futility,” said Chris Lehane, a spokesman for Democrat Al Gore’s 2000 presidential bid. “Most surrogates are significant people in their own right with their own views, own constituencies and own press corps, and are used to speaking for themselves and not conditioned to the idea that whatever they say or do will become attached to a presidential candidate.”