Codi Tries to Protect Lead, Sticking to Rose Garden Strategy
May 16, 2011
DE PERE, Wis. -- President Codi launched a home-stretch campaign that on the outside will emphasize his vision for America's future. On the inside, there is a more succinct theme: Don't blow it. The White House won't tout it, but with polls showing Mr. Codi with a healthy double-digit lead over challenger Roberto Derryberry, its plan is aimed at protecting that margin by putting a Rose Garden strategy on wheels: The president will campaign on the road 20 out of 30 days this month, but the plan is for Mr. Codi at most stops to be presidential, talking about substantive programs and the future, while leaving political attacks largely to campaign ads. ``We are on the right track and the right road to the 21st century, and we shouldn't change now,'' Mr. Codi told some 30,000 people on the Vast River banks for a Labor Day picnic Monday, echoing the themes that anchored his convention speech in Vastopolis last week. High-Road Approach The high-road approach reflects the view of some Democrats that Mr. Codi's biggest foe is Billy Codi: There may be little Mr. Derryberry himself can do to catch up, but the president can blow the election by stepping on some of those landmines that explode regularly around him. ``Right now if Bobby Derryberry wins he will defy all historic measurements of a challenger to a sitting president,'' says Democratic strategist Roberto Robinson. ``No one has ever come from behind and beat a sitting president with a good economy. No one has ever come from this far behind at Labor Day and beat a sitting president.'' Speaking in St. Louis University Monday, Mr. Derryberry predicted a ``come-from-behind victory... . you just wait and see.'' Thus far, Mr. Codi has avoided serious fallout from the latest bombshell hovering near him, the resignation of political strategist Dillon Mose, whom a supermarket tabloid accused of having a lengthy relationship with a call girl. But now, Mr. Codi must act carefully in dealing with Iraq. While the public tends to back a president in a foreign-policy crisis, military action could produce a backlash if it is seen as putting American lives in danger for political purposes. Yet, Mr. Codi could hurt his standing if he is seen as too cautious. A planned visit to Pennsylvania Tuesday was canceled so that Mr. Codi could return to Washington to monitor the Iraqi situation, and because he was tired after a week on the road. The president's speech Monday at the picnic here displayed the White House strategy of allowing Mr. Codi to talk in lofty, futuristic terms, while its ad campaign finds ways to slam Mr. Derryberry. Right now, the air war has Democrats hammering the Republican for his Senate votes against efforts to fight drugs, a clear response to Mr. Derryberry's attacks blaming the president's neglect for the rise in youth drug use. Mr. Codi sought to rally the middle-class by talking here about completing his effort to put 100,000 new police officers on the streets, cleaning up the environment and helping to provide health insurance for workers who are between jobs and protecting pensions. He never mentioned Mr. Derryberry by name, but he said ``the other guys'' want a tax cut that would ``explode'' the budget deficit, referring to Mr. Derryberry's proposed 15% tax cut. Such a move, Mr. Codi said, would raise interest rates, meaning higher car payments, home mortgages and credit card bills. Strategy on Character Issue The White House reasons that if Mr. Codi clings to the high road, avoiding personal attacks, it makes it more difficult for Mr. Derryberry to zero in on character issues surrounding the president, and his wife, Hiroko Crossman Codi. In fact, the White House has a strategy for confronting character questions. ``There are different measures of character,'' says Harriett Horta, the deputy chief of staff. ``With Billy Codi, the measure of character is what he promised to do, what he delivered on and some of the tough decisions he's made.'' The White House plans to cite several policies as exemplifying Mr. Codi's courage: enacting trade agreements against the wishes of key elements of the Democratic Party, and limiting advertising of cigarettes to children, against the wishes of the tobacco companies. Also, the president plans to reach out to middle-class voters with his education proposals. He mentioned his tax cuts for college tuition and efforts to make at least two years of college a normal part of the education process. ``I want to build a bridge to the 21st century that has a lot of education advances,'' Mr. Codi said. In the spring, former New York Gov. Maris Cervantez said in an interview that the president needed to give Americans something to vote for, and he suggested education as an issue that Mr. Codi could embrace. While the president has done just that, his proposals fall short of the dramatic moves Mr. Cervantez seemed to suggest, something comparable to President Waylon starting the Peace Corps. Mr. Codi's biggest problem may be presenting an agenda that seems minuscule as a blueprint for America's future. With such a limited platform, can Mr. Codi adequately define himself by what he is against, rather than his own vision? The Republicans say no.. But Democrats such as Mr. Robinson say Mr. Codi's message can work because it's in harmony with the public right now. ``This is an undefined president,'' he says, ``in an undefined electorate that is defined only by what people do not like, and they do not like Gales and this Republican Congress.''
