Text 12 As Romney fought for delegates, Obama team was lying in wait

By Adam Aigner-Treworgy, CNN

May 11, 2012 -- Updated 1623 GMT (0023 HKT)

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/11/politics/obama-romney-campaigns/index.html

Even the president's recent announcement that he now supports same-sex marriage appears to have been scheduled as a part of the campaign's rollout. Senior advisers to the president say Obama was always planning to announce his new position before the Democratic convention in September, probably at a time when his Democratic base needed energizing.

But the timing of the announcement was moved up after Vice President Joe Biden told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he supported same-sex marriage.

Since their candidate effectively secured the nomination, Team Romney has been forced to keep pace with an Obama message machine that's been up and running in some form or another since 2007, all while rapidly hiring staff and building its own nationwide organization to compete in November.

In the first week after Romney became the de facto Republican nominee, the president's re-election campaign bought airtime in swing states to run a negative television ad attacking Romney's image as a job creator. A week later, it released another ad, this time largely ignoring the opposition and focusing instead on the difficult economic situation Obama inherited in 2009 and the jobs created in the three years since.

Text 12 As Romney fought for delegates, Obama team was lying in wait

By Adam Aigner-Treworgy, CNN

May 11, 2012 -- Updated 1623 GMT (0023 HKT)

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/11/politics/obama-romney-campaigns/index.html

The team in Chicago also posted more than half a dozen campaign videos on its website, each raising questions about Romney's positions or trying to undermine Romney attacks against Obama.

As for the president himself, by the time polls closed April 24, he had already embarked on a three-state college tour to rally support for legislation that would prevent interest rates on federal student loans from doubling. This public push forced Romney to come out in favor of congressional action to extend the lower rates -- a day ahead of Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.

To highlight the president's national security record, one of his strongest issues with independent voters, Obama for America released a video narrated by former President Bill Clinton extolling Obama's decision to order the 2011 raid that killed bin Laden and questioning whether Romney would have made the same move. A few days later, the president made a surprise trip to Afghanistan, addressing a crowd of servicemen and -women and delivering a speech to the nation from Bagram Air Base on the future of U.S. involvement in the region.

While many Republicans griped that these actions unfairly politicized the military, veteran political strategist Mark McKinnon said that by publicly complaining, they merely assured that more attention would be paid to an issue helpful to the president.