Thursday, September 20, 2012

Romney campaign leaks yet another plan to re-release Mr. 47%

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (L) shakes hands with businessman and real estate developer Donald Trump at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada February 2, 2012. Trump re-injected himself and his wealth int Mr. 47% isn't the solution. He's the problem. For the second time this week, the Romney campaign is leaking its plans to re-release their candidate, but this time, instead of using Romney to fire up his political base (as they said they would at the beginning of the week), they are now planning to use him as their ambassador to undecided voters.
The plan, described by top aides and advisers in interviews this week, is an acknowledgment that Romney is in enough of a hole that he cannot depend on the presidential debates to turn his candidacy around. In fact, Romney, who recently did five mock debates in a 48-hour period to practice, has confided to advisers that it may be hard to win a debate because every attack against President Barack Obama will seem stale while the attacks on him will seem fresher and newsier to a hostile media.

Instead, Romney plans to dial back on fundraisers and vastly increase his personal appearances ' on the stump and in ads ' to convince what's left of the undecided voters that Obama has been a disappointment and that he has a specific plan that is less risky than the status quo.

According to Politico, the new Romney strategy is apparently to just give voters more Mitt.
'He has to own his message for people, especially women, to buy the messenger,' one top adviser said.

A campaign official said: 'In a lot of the current survey data, there's a desire among the electorate to know more about Mitt in terms of how he would lead. Over the next six weeks, the campaign is going to provide a lot more of that.'

Obviously it's not like there's any easy solutions to the Romney campaign's problems, but I'm pretty darn sure that more of Mitt Romney isn't the solution. They think he needs to "own his message"? Uh, hasn't he already been doing that? And isn't that part of the problem?

When that video of Romney writing off 47 percent of the electorate came out, he owned it. He could have distanced himself from it'instead, he doubled down on it. It may have been Romney's most authentic moment of the campaign, but it was nonetheless a disaster for him. The morning after Romney released that ridiculous statement accusing President Obama of sympathizing with anti-American murderers, he decided to own the statement even after facts surfaced revealing what a foolish statement it had been.

Maybe what Romney's campaign needs isn't more Mitt, but less. A couple of days ago, RealClearPolitics reported that Romney had spent just nine of the 19 days since the GOP convention campaigning in public'he spent the rest of the time raising money, doing debate prep, or taking time off. Maybe that was the best schedule for Romney. Obviously, it would be a bit weird for a presidential candidate to spend a majority of his time campaigning behind closed doors. But could it really be any worse than the spectacle of his embarrassing attempt to exploit the killing of American diplomats or his rash decision to stand by his attack on the 47 percent?


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