In PoliticsNation Tuesday, Rev. Al Sharpton speculated that the Obama campaign is taking a playbook from Ted Kennedy's 1994 Senate victory over Mitt Romney in focusing on the Bain Capital executive's history of slashing blue-collar jobs.
Veteran Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, who wrote a devastating television ad used by the Kennedy campaign in 1994, said the Obama team should learn from the successes of the past. Indeed, the Obama team on Monday released an ad strikingly similar to Shrum's 1994 spot. "Romney is of the few, by the few, for the few," said Shrum. "Nothing is more powerful than those workers in their own words."
The 1994 ad was unscripted, Shrum said, which is what made it so effective. "Those guys are Reagan Democrats," Shrum said. "Blue-collar Democrats talking to other Reagan Democrats and blue-collar Democrats." Those workers crystallized the issue in the election, Shrum said, which is, "Who is going to stand up for the majority of hard-working Americans?"