American and French Political Smear Tactics 2012

There is something going on in both the United States and France during their respective presidential election campaigns that is amazingly similar.
I would call it creating the Demon and then Striking Him Down.
In France, the Socialist Francois Hollande has hit upon this device by finding the weak point of his opponent, incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy, that is the easiest to establish and the hardest to disprove.
In effect, Hollande and the Socialists have for many months tried to establish that Sarkozy is "interested only in the rich and does not really care about the majority of the French." Hollande has hammered this point home until the mass media and commentators have accepted it and use it as a major critcism of Sarkozy and his term in office. That it is not true is no longer important. Hollande created the Demon and he is now Striking Him Down.
Sarkozy has, in effect, lost the possibility of countering this false accusation. Whatever he says is simply countered by Hollande as another example of Sarkozy's support for the rich and his disdain for the common French person and his worries.
The same thing is being tried in the US by President Obama and his camp as they search for the weak point in Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for President. Because the GOP has the traditional reputation of being the party of "business and the rich" and because Obama has created the image of himself as the champion of the "common man", the game is on.
But, in the US, so far, the Demon (Romney working only for the rich and not caring about the common American) has not stuck enough to become a truism without need for proof. The media are still debating the issue. And, it is clear that Romney is not a tool of the rich, or of anybody else, for that matter. He won a primary battle by getting the votes of a wide range of GOP and independent voters.
The rich in America couldn't elect anybody because, as in France, there are just simply not enough of them.
But, one thing is sure, Mitt Romney needs to address this question urgently. If he doesn't, he will face the same unanswerable challenge that President Sarkozy now faces in the French presidential election. Thursday's poll in France showed Hollande in the lead over Sarkozy, 55% to 45%. Smear tactics can work if they are relentlessly pursued.
If Romney doesn't want to end up in the same boat, he had better get his campaign to focus on his support for ordinary Americans and his ability to solve their problems.