By Fraser P. Seitel
Now that all the foolishness in Iowa is over … Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain have successfully elevated their speaker's fees … Rick Perry’s early $17 million- backers have started to recover … and Ron Paul is back in his nut case … it's time to focus on the Romney-Obama Presidential election race.
Make no mistake, despite New York Times predictions of “a long GOP road to November” and cable news hopeful breathlessness, you can stick a fork in the Republican race. It’s over. And unlike last time, when Republicans served up an over-the- hill Beltway lightweight, in 2012 their candidate has a real chance of winning.
On the one hand, even his supporters acknowledge that Barack Obama has been a presidential flopperoo. Nice guy. Attractive. Good family man. But a big disappointment as President. On other hand, if the stock market is heading up and unemployment trending down in November, Obama could be poised for reelection.
It will all come down to PR. And here's the PR formula that candidate Mitt Romney might adopt to bring home the bacon.
Romney should wear proudly the cloak of a business leader. This is his greatest
strength and most important distinction from Obama. And he shouldn’t shy away from it – despite the anti-Wall Street sentiment and Occupy Wall Street 1%-ers.
On the contrary, Romney should reiterate the nation’s most pressing need to get people – including millions of individuals already out-of-work and hundreds of thousands of post-Iraq/Afghanistan veterans soon to be out-of- work – jobs.
He should point out the futility of asking an academic, neighborhood organizer, full-time politician to create private sector jobs. Obama hasn’t a clue how to incent the private sector.
His solution, public sector jobs, might well make some sense in the short-run but has been poisoned by his first disastrous stimulus bill. Ergo, passing a new Obama “stimulus” will pose a PR nightmare. By contrast, Romney should talk about his tenure leading Bain & Company and what he did to build and save companies and how he did it. The contrast of a real CEO with an impotent President will be striking.
- Time for a serious, adult leader.
Romney should continue to be Romney, a serious, not particularly warm or emotional, mature leader. He shouldn’t overly worry as the criticisms build that he lacks “passion.”
An out-of-work truck driver in Cleveland couldn’t care less about an emotionless President, as long as he’s employed and back on the road.
Romney should emphasize that for all of Obama’s youthful warmth, emotion and passion, the nation’s declining economic state won’t benefit from “warm and fuzzy.”
“Nice guys don’t win ball games,” baseball manager Leo Durocher once said. And Romney should embrace that notion with respect to his opponent. This state of the nation, he should note, can’t tolerate any more children or amateurs trying out as leaders.
Romney should underscore his independence and the fact that he is his own man by summarily rejecting most of those who have run against him in the Republican primaries.
He should resist the inevitable calls by the losers’ rejected supporters to embrace their fallen candidates. With one exception, the losers will add nothing to Romney’s acceptability.
Their campaigns have revealed that Newt Gingrich is little more than a pompous blowhard, Herman Cain a self-promoter, Rick Perry a dim bulb, and Ron Paul a waning Don Quixote. Neither Michelle Bachmann nor Sarah Palin can add much.
And the weasely Donald Trump can prove toxic if Romney truly buys his self-promotion. (Remember when Obama flew to New York to celebrate Al Sharpton!?!)
Rather than extending himself to any of these also-rans, Romney should surround himself with new faces, all senior, all smart, and all experienced in business or governing. Americans have had it with the same old political faces – the polls say they hate ‘em all – so Romney would be smart to usher in a brand new team.
With one controversial exception…
- Make Santorum the Vice President.
A stretch? Perhaps. But…
Conservatives don’t like Romney and don’t trust him. The only reason they’ll eventually vote for him is they abhor Obama. But they won’t like him much unless he adds some true conservatism to the mix.
Rick Santorum, as he showed in Iowa (the only thing the Iowa Primary contributed), is beloved by conservatives. He is archly religious, staunchly socially right wing, and a Karl Rove acolyte. On the other hand, as a two-term Pennsylvania representative and senator, he has consistently shown that he can get along and consistently supported the rights of working class people, because that’s where he came from.
Santorum’s selection as Romney’s vice president will, admittedly, cause glee among Democrats. All of his controversial views on everything from homosexuality to intelligent design to privacy rights will be blasted. But as he showed in Iowa and increasingly on the national stage -- as opposed to the phonies Gingrich and Cain and the knuckleheaded Perry -- Santorum is no slouch. He’s knowledgeable and articulate and – for better or worse – sincere in his beliefs.
Besides for a nation willing to accept the likes of Joe Biden and Dan Quayle as vice presidents, Santorum would be a step up.
See also:
PR Formula for Obama's Re-Election (12/06/2011) |