The general election has unofficially begun, and already the online ads I see (contextually placed) have nothing to do with Mitt and everything to do with Anne. Win a chance to meet and “grab a bite” with Anne Romney…. not the actual presidential candidate… because, well… the candidate just not very interesting, and will insult your cookies, anyway.
Honestly, look at the screen shot below of the “Mitt Romney” ads selected to run when this article was first published!
So has the campaign given up on making Mitt likable? Yes and no. You can’t teach personality, we all know that, but you can train a dog to shake, roll over, and well…
People are generally curious about Mitt Romney, but they won’t want to know him. Mitt Romney is more a character in Monopoly for the “average American.” He’s a study in what it means to be wealthy, but generally, there’s nothing there beyond the top hat. Mitt Romney has no new ideas, and like big business, is too willing to pivot to win. That’s business, but it’ll result in a political loss.
His staff and advisors are all of the old guard, and the man has been effectively running for president since before facebook and twitter even existed. It’s the same old, tested and failed Republican ideas that benefit the rich sold to the rest of the county as a dream that someday we’ll get there too. It doesn’t work. Definition of crazy, people.
So… the Romney campaign is already relying on Anne Romney to garner some positive numbers. First, it’s far to early for that – might as well throw in the towel now. Second, that is a damage control move (Mitt Romney’s, the the Republican party’s “woman problem”). Damage control with your only big gun (the only person on the campaign with any showing of positive numbers in the likability column) this early in the presidential campaign is going to exhaust the political capital too early in the campaign.
Take a blog post about Anne Romney ON the campaign’s website that’s titled, “Anne Romney – Mitt’s Better Half”…. so already the campaign has given up on the half that’s actually running for president? Playing the pieces too soon, but I don’t blame you really – Mitt Romney and his total lack of new ideas that can help the entire country rather than just small pockets of those with very large pockets doesn’t give you much to work with.
Side note on imaging: someone seriously needs to teach Mitt Romney how to look at people without looking quite so creepy. The deadpan, endearing smile glare isn’t working so well. (And he seems to be using more and more lately.)
The Democrats need to let the Republicans play this out and focus on protecting and getting voters. That’s it. Anne Romney is a nice person, but a spouse will never win an election. The candidate must connect or they will lose. Mitt will never connect, which is one reason why there are so many efforts to restrict the vote among people who Democrats normally count on for votes. As a whole, it’s not an election determined by the candidates, it’s an election determined by logistics and new laws. I think Republicans know that just a wee bit more than Democrats.
Nevertheless: for the personal touch and daily polls, clearly Mitt’s campaign hopes Anne’s smile and semi-soccer-mom attitude will carry them through to November. It’s asking too much, but one never knows what might be up their sleeves.
