The Economy, but Not Just the Economy for Romney

For much of the current election cycle, Governor Mitt Romney's campaign has often seemed to take the economy as its organizing premise, platform, and number-one campaign ad: the poor economy would, so the thinking went, spell doom for President Barack Obama's re-election hopes.  Though not in 2008's free fall, the economy has continued to stagger along, with poor employment numbers, mediocre at best growth, and stagnating incomes.  Despite this disappointing economic performance, however, Romney has not yet broken into a clear polling lead over the president.  Some of the president's post-convention bounce seems to have dissipated, but he still holds a marginal edge in many polls.
This polling edge has caused some concern in various sectors of the right, and some within the Romney campaign seem to be turning to look beyond the economy.  Zeke Miller at BuzzFeed suggests that the Romney campaign has decided, in the words of one adviser, that this election cannot "only be about the economy anymore....The economy narrows the gap and puts us in contention, but we have to bring more to the table."
For the Romney campaign, it's important to keep some focus on the present administration's economic failures.  These failures suggest the limitations of President Obama's current policies.  But when many voters (rightly or wrongly) hold the GOP partly or even principally responsible for the start of the Great Recession, merely highlighting the failures of the present might not be enough.  In order to counter the despair of the present with hope for the future, the Romney campaign can highlight policies that would improve the current economic situation.  The campaign has outlined some policy steps it might take (such as trade reform and regulatory reform), and it could easily build on these steps.

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