Fraser
P. Seitel has been a communications
consultant, author and teacher for 30 years. He
may be reached directly at yusake
@aol.com.
He
is the author of the Prentice- Hall text The Practice of Public Relations,
now in its eleventh edition, and co-author of Idea Wise.
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Oct. 1, 2012 |
ROMNEY'S LAST STAND |
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By Fraser P. Seitel
With 40 days left until the election and with apologies to MSNBC and Rush Limbaugh, the following are inarguable facts:
- Barack Obama has been a mediocre president, bereft of ideas on how to put people to work and virtually clueless about how the American enterprise system can help the economy.
- However, Barack Obama is a savvy politician and outstanding candidate who knows what buttons to push to win elections.
- Mitt Romney has been a tremendously successful businessman, whom, as president, would likely introduce just the ideas to put people back to work and get the stalled economy restarted.
- However, Mitt Romney has been a hopelessly lost campaigner, buttressed by a ham-handed staff, whose only prayer to win rests on a miraculous performance in the upcoming debates, where he must be specific, charitable and Presidential.
Here, then, are the arguments Romney must hammer home in the very first debate this week, if he has any chance of narrowing the electoral gap that exists now.
1. President Obama, through either lack of knowledge or weakness or both, has proven incapable of understanding how to get the economy untracked or putting people to work.
- Obama deserves credit for continuing the Bush emergency plan to rescue the financial system and also assisting the auto industry in his first year.
- But he has done nothing after that to put Americans back to work.
- His only idea – government stimulus to fund government jobs – was a colossal failure.
- He knows little about the one sector that can solve the nation’s employment problem, the private sector.
2. Here is my plan – with specifics -- to put people back to work.
- On energy, we will invest vigorously in traditional sources – oil, coal, nuclear – to really become “energy independent.” We will continue but pare back investments in wind, solar and other alternatives.
- On foreign trade, we will reward nations that practice fair trade and penalize those that don’t.
- On business investment, we will give tax incentives for companies that hire more people and tax breaks for companies that repatriate capital investment overseas and direct it to U.S. investment.
- On education, we will continue to invest in K-12, encourage charter schools and job retraining; working together with anyone – including teachers’ union – who put children first.
- On federal spending, we will pare the budget, including defense spending. Nothing should be exempt from savings.
3. My only objective is to pull our nation back to the top.
- President Obama is an inspiring speaker, a charismatic leader and I’m sure a good man, who means well. But he lacks what we need to turn around our nation’s fortunes.
- My experience in building jobs and leading people and organizations and my commitment to succeeding as President just as I have in other jobs make me the only choice.
- Our nation can’t afford four more years of drift, indecision and decline.
4. Finally, this election is personal, but it’s not about “personality.”
- In looking at your own personal situation, ask yourself:
- Are you better off with a professor or a business leader as President?
- Do you want a leader who has wavered and failed or one who has succeeded in every enterprise with which he’s been associated?
- Are you content with the status quo that has produced mediocrity or are you willing to consider new ideas for growth?
- Can you afford to stand still for the next four years, or do you wish a chance to improve your personal stake?
Failing to make these arguments, Mitt Romney is, as we say at the breakfast buffet, “toast.” |
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Responses: |
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Wes Pedersen (10/01):
One nit: In the third bulleted paragraph, it's who, not whom. Other than that, perfect.
Except: Obama may not sew the country back together, but he won't rip it apart, leaving the middle and working classes out in the bitter cold, naked before their historic enemies.
Bill Huey, Strategic Communications (10/01):
Good as far as it goes, but I would add one more: "I can unlock the more than $2 trillion of cash American companies are sitting on and get the money flowing again to create jobs and growth." If Obama is so anti-business and bad for growth, where did all that money come from? |
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