'Eighty or 90 percent of this election is going to be about [Democrats],' John Boehner told reporters. Boehner on the national stage

CLEVELAND — John Boehner is clearly laying his marker for what Republicans think will propel them into the House majority in November.

Not a Contract with America, but a Contract on Obama. A continuous battering of the president’s advisers, policies and legacy. A recital of every Democratic misstep, misstatement and miscue of the past 20 months. An attack strategy that is thus far short on Republican vision and long on bashing Democrats.


Boehner’s economic speech in Cleveland on Tuesday morning had few fresh new Republican policy ideas, yet he used the phrase “job killing” 13 times to describe the Obama agenda.

“Eighty or 90 percent of this election is going to be about them,” the House minority leader told reporters after his speech here on Tuesday. “But that 10 or 20 percent of the election that’s about us, my goal has been, for 20 months, is to maximize that portion of the election that’s about us.”

It’s an admission by Republicans that they are completely comfortable running directly against Democrats in 2010, while keeping their own plans for governing secret until just a month before the election.

The Democratic response to Boehner Tuesday was also telling — Democrats ranging from Vice President Joe Biden to Speaker Nancy Pelosi to party political operatives lined up to blast the speech and warn of a return to the economic legacy of George W. Bush.

Biden took time to chide “Boehner and his party” for running the economy into the ground. The Ohio Republican is “nostalgic for those good old days,” and Biden thinks that that America has seen Republican leadership and don’t want to go back.

White House Deputy press secretary Bill Burton didn’t miss an opportunity to draw a contrast against Boehner’s during Tuesday’s press briefing in Martha’s Vineyard. Burton said Boehner offered a “full-throated defense of what is indefensible” — meaning tax cuts for the wealthy and sending business overseas. President Barack Obama will not take time out of his vacation to respond to Boehner, Burton said.

The DNC’s “rapid response” team sent out a dozen e-mails picking apart Boehner, but in doing so elevated an otherwise straightforward Tuesday morning speech in Ohio to the political news of the day.

Both the Republican strategy of bashing Obama 24/7 and the Democratic decision to demonize Boehner carry risks.

For one, Republicans have been branded as the party of no ideas, and concentrating 80 percent on Democrats could serve to bolster the idea that the GOP is trying to back its way into a congressional majority.

Boehner’s ideas for the economy — as enumerated here in the downtown gothic City Club – are well worn and have made the rounds in Republican circles this year. He’s demonizing a few of Obama’s advisers by calling on them to resign, asking President Barack Obama for spending cuts, lowering taxes and rejecting employee free-choice and energy legislation. Boehner bragged about the speech in a National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising appeal Tuesday afternoon — “Stop the spending spree, Fire Geithner” the email read.

In short, there was little new in Boehner’s heralded economic speech. In fact, Boehner was non-committal when asked by reporters Tuesday if his economic ideas will be part of a specific GOP agenda.

“We’ll see,” he told reporters here.

Not mentioned in Boehner’s five economic pillars: Social Security, Medicare, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or regulation of Wall Street. In fact, in a 20-minute question-and-answer session after the speech, audience members hardly touched on the ideas espoused in Boehner’s address. They did, however, ask about the government sponsored enterprises and the budget plan of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Listen to Boehner explain it, his party is relying on Democrats for their own electoral fortunes. He’s even crediting Democrats for keeping Republicans unified.

“I think our leadership team has done a pretty good job, but I’ve gotta give a lot of credit to President Obama and Speaker Pelosi for pushing my colleagues into my loving arms,” Boehner told reporters. “We are not that good. The reason I say it this way — it gives you some idea of how some idea how far out of the American mainstream these policies have been.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are working hard to make the election about Boehner, who still lacks a serious national profile. Instead of Democrats having to concentrate on their own policies, they plan to portray Boehner as the heir apparent to Bush-era policies.

In two days, Democrats arranged for Biden, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern and White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer to dismantle Boehner. They say he’s supporting “the same old failed economic policies that steered our economy into the ditch.” The DNC even created an advertisement that rehashed a 1990s incident that had Boehner passing out campaign checks from tobacco lobbyists on the House floor.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also sought to tie Boehner to Bush.

It was a heck of a lot of attention to give to an 8 a.m. speech in Cleveland on a dead news day in August. In fact, Republicans are quietly whispering that the attention paid by Democrats to Boehner over the past 24 hours only boosts his profile.

“Listen, it comes with the territory,” Boehner said of the attention showered on him by Democrats. “And they’re trying in every way possible to make this election about something other than them. But they’re kidding themselves. This election is going to be a referendum on their policies and their votes over the last 20 months. They can do whatever.”

The remarkable buzz around Boehner’s speech comes just as he is trying furiously to create a national brand for himself. He’s on a bus tour, crossing the country for candidates — he’s done events for 18 since Aug. 2. He’s speaking more about his personal life — talking about mopping his father’s bar floor as a child. He even unveiled that he grew up in a Democratic household.

There is no indication, though, that any of this will be effective. Boehner as a national Republican leader doesn’t seem to be a campaign issue, despite Democratic efforts. And even Boehner admits that the country may not be ready to throw their arms back around the GOP.

“They’ve got their doubts about us,” Boehner told a handful of national political reporters in this economically battered city. “And I understand it. What I’ve told my colleagues, going back to January of last year, ‘don’t expect people to believe what you say. You’re a politician. They’ve heard all this. You have to prove it to them.’”

Boehner’s contention, though, is that Congress is broken. He frequently mentions his work on education reform with liberal California Rep. George Miller and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in an attempt to bolster his ability to reach across the aisle.

“Congress is broken and somebody has to put it back on the course that’ll fix it,” Boehner said.

“And that’s you?” he was asked by a reporter.

Boehner responded, “I got it.”

Carol E. Lee contributed reporting from Oak Bluffs, Mass.