In the streets of downtown Tampa, dual preparations continue as the city braces for tropical Storm Issac and the Republican National Convention. Convention officials delayed the start of the events from Monday afternoon to Tuesday as a safety precaution. Issac is not projected to hit landfall in Tampa, but that will not stop massive amounts of rain and strong winds from shutting everything down for a day.

There is one thing, however, that will continue to work inside the Forum center and serves as a loud remainder of what this election is about. That item is a large clock keeping track of the amount of financial debt, added each second. Tampa may be worried about the impending storm of Issac, but the entire country is facing a debt storm that is bearing down on everyone like a category 5 hurricane.

The optic of the clock is a perfect anchor for one of the foundational fights that will be played out this presidential election. President Obama will fight to make this election about Romney’s taxes, women’s rights, and Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan. The President’s surrogates and spokespeople will attempt to distract voters away from the economy.

Thus far, they have done an excellent job of doing so. But, the fiscal cliff that the spending of the Obama administration has enacted is a problem that Romney must keep front and center in the campaign. Nothing does that better than the backdrop of a debt calculator displaying the massive bill the country is racking up.

This is a message that the republicans must take to heart as well. The last two weeks have seen the Romney camp get bogged down over Medicare and the comments of Senate candidate Todd Akin regarding rape and abortion. The economy and the debt are problems one and two. They cannot afford to get caught in the Obama trap of defending themselves and talking about things that have nothing to do with those issues.

Many in the media will play along with President Obama and will be all too willing to cover other issues. Optics is one way around this obstacle. Do not just talk, show. Judging by the large and ominous clock clicking up every second of the convention speakers’ speeches, the Romney campaign may be on their way to making this election about what it needs to be about.

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Both presidential candidates are doing a tremendous effort to gain female and working-class voters support. Both of them know how crucial these votes will be in key states and are already doing all they can to gain their sympathy.

Mitt Romney on August 11 is making a trip to some of the swing states that could decide this election: Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio. During these visits he will be accompanied by three of his possible vice-presidential picks: Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Senator Rob Portman. There is a possibility that during these visits he will announce who will be his running mate.

It is not a coincidence that five out of eleven speakers announced for the Republican National Convention are women. Romney has also been accusing Obama of planning to double out taxpayer dollars, even for people who are not trying to find work. This accusation has the clear goal to gain working-class voters favor.

President Obama on the other hand had an appearance scheduled for August 8 with Sandra Fluke, the famous Georgetown University student who became a leader for pro-choice women. Fluke became known nationwide after being called a slut by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh for her support of Obama’s health care that requires insurance companies to cover contraception.

The President wants to take advantage of Fluke’s popularity to gain female voters support. Democrats have been accusing the Republicans of starting a war against women because of their opposition of the Affordable Care Act, which according to the Democrats will give the women many benefits and crucial protections. Obama is currently leading in female voters’ intentions in key states like Florida and Ohio.

President Obama has been insisting during his entire campaign that Romney wants to cut taxes for the rich and increase taxes for the middle class, and Obama on the other hand wants the rich to pay a little bit more, so in that way taxes for the middle class don’t have to increase. But Romney is intending to show that Obama plans would affect the middle class. Romney has warned that Obama is intending to undo Clinton’s welfare reforms by offering waivers to the states, in other words he is trying to convince the voters that Obama is a liberal, who wants to give the poor a free pass in expense of the middle class, which is the one he is supposedly defending.

The Democrats have not ignored these accusations, White House spokesman Jay Carney told Romney’s accusations were “categorically false and blatantly dishonest.”

Image Courtesy of  michael rubin / Shutterstock.com

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