“Forward.” That is Barack Obama’s new campaign slogan, and it’s another way of saying, “Don’t look back, don’t judge me on my record, don’t think about the last four years. Think about the next four and who you want running the country, me or Mitt.”

As Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt summed up this argument: “This election, like all other elections, is going to be a choice between two candidates, two records and two visions for the country.”

If Republican Mitt Romney had a one-word slogan, it would be exactly the opposite: “Backward.” In November, he is telling voters, don’t make a choice between two candidates; render a judgment about one of them. And Obama is a failure who does not deserve a second term.

”What this election is about,” Romney said in a recent statement, “is the 23 million Americans who are still struggling to find work and the millions who have lost their homes and have fallen into poverty.”