This is about the total destruction of Dave’s opponents

I was very struck last night by the Twreet from politics academic Professor Glen O’Hara on the first week of the referendum campaign.

Cam + Osbo play high pressure game, high up the pitch. Put oppo under pressure, force them to make mistakes. That's what's happening now.

— Glen O'Hara (@gsoh31) April 24, 2016

The reason OUT is so on the defensive at the moment is simply because of the force of the major initiatives from the Cameron team in week one. We have had the Treasury document and the £4,300 claim and then the Obama visit and press conference.

OUT has been totally taken aback by what’s facing them and have responded appallingly in an ill-judged fashion. To get themselves in a position where their only course is to try destroy the reputation of Obama, which Boris stupidly continues this morning, shows how wrong footed they’ve become.

Cooler heads would have kept mum and let the President’s assertions come and go. As it is their current main approach had just made them look weak.

Boris’s ill-thought out attacks on Obama are as bad a mistake as Labour’s EdStone initiative in the general election. Both came out of panic because of the success of Team Cameron in defining what the election is about.

Is also illustrates the massive weakness of those who want to leave the EU. They simply do not have a figurehead to put the argument in a way that resonates with voters.

What we know about Cameron is that he is totally ruthless when it comes to winning elections. Look at how his team destroyed Clegg in the 2011 AV referendum and then EdM last year. Now it is about undermining the credibility of those who want to leave the EU particularly the Mayor who in February was wavering up to the last moment on which side he should be on.

Let’s see what Week Two brings.

Mike Smithson

Follow @MSmithsonPB

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