Presidential elections are won on the basis of personal appeal and
the ability to provide compelling leadership on the biggest issues of
the day. In the opening stages of the general election race, Mitt
Romney's campaign seems prematurely willing to admit defeat on the first
count, while telling Americans that there's really only one big issue of the day — the economy. Neither of these is the right tack to take.
What's
more, there's no reason for the Romney camp to take either of these
positions. On the first, Romney just finished winning a bruising GOP
primary battle largely on the basis of voters having judged him to be,
in his own way, the most personally appealing candidate. GOP primary
voters, for the most part, didn't back Romney because they found his
policy prescriptions, or past policy innovations, to be clearly superior
to those of other candidates. Rather, they backed him, at least
principally, because they viewed him to be the most presidential, the
most electable — in short, the most personally appealing — choice.
As for Obama, every time Romney's advisors talk
about how popular they think the president is, they sound like they're
trapped in 2008. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then.
And while Obama does have a modicum of charm, he's hardly Ronald Reagan
or even Bill Clinton when it comes to personal appeal. He's a scold,
he’s often dour, and he's not particularly dignified. (Clinton wasn’t
dignified either, but Reagan certainly was.) He blames others at every
turn. He doesn't have much of a sense of humor — or of humility. Off
the cuff, he's certainly not eloquent and isn’t even very articulate.
And rather than appearing warm and good-natured, he more often comes off
as cold and distant.
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