GOP turns Obama’s themes against him

Republicans sought to use some of President Obama’s own campaign themes against him on Tuesday, accusing the president of a “deficit of hope” since taking office.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) released a new Web video this morning reviving the “O-ba-ma” chants Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) used in a controversial ad against Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

The new video features the chants of acclaim for Obama, which shift into jeers as a series of negative statistics and figures flash across the screen.

“The American people have seen who is benefiting from Obama’s economy, and it isn’t them. Barack Obama’s looming tax hikes on small businesses, job-killing regulations and big government takeovers have created an economic climate saturated with uncertainty that is keeping employers from hiring,” RNC Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement. “If Obama’s economy is all Democrats have to offer, the American people will vote to fire Nancy Pelosi and put this Democratic Congress out of business.”

The video is meant to cast Obama — and his 2008 campaigns of “hope” and “change” — as having lost its luster after a year and a half of Obama in the White House, all during a period in which Democrats have controlled the House and Senate.

“Welcome to the Obama economy,” the ad finishes by saying.

The video, at its outset, is in some ways reminiscent of the ad released in the summer of 2008 by the McCain campaign, likening Obama to celebrities like Britney Spears, and in a bid to cast Obama as lacking serious presidential credentials.

“This video suffers from a deficit of truth. And creativity,” shot back DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan. “Of course what would be really original from the Republican party is proposing an actual solution to address the challenges faced by American families instead of spending even more of their ever-dwindling donor dollars on tired, debunked attacks that do nothing to help anyone. But in that regard we do have a ‘deficit of hope.’”

Updated 11:18 a.m.