Hugh
Hewitt
Examiner Columnist
"I don't think there are any of those things that are not part of the American consciousness today." - Mitt Romney, April 20
That's part of an answer Gov. Romney gave to me on Friday's radio show. If he's right, it's very good news for everyone hoping to defeat President Obama in November.
The question I had asked: "Governor, with a couple of minutes left, there is a list of a dozen words I carry around with me, maybe a couple more -- Obamacare, stimulus, unemployment, debt, deficit, gas prices, Keystone, Gulf oil spill, EPA, Solyndra, Boeing, Gibson Guitar, Fast and Furious, GSA, Israel, flexibility. Are you afraid of any of those words, Governor? Do you want those words to sort of cue the conversations that are going to drive this election?"
If Romney is right, and the collective American consciousness has absorbed the impact of those words, the president has very little chanced to redefine the election no matter how often he repeats his choice of words and phrases, which include Bain, silver spoon and the 1 percent.
If voters are talking about and thinking about my list, they are also thinking about the president's record on those words, and it is record of failure.
Romney's full answer to my question:
"I think they demonstrate the failure of this presidency. I mean, he laid out what he thought success would be defined by, and on his own measures, he has failed. He has not created jobs, there have been one problem after another. You've described a number of them in that long list, and I was listening pretty carefully. I don't think there are any of those things that are not part of the American consciousness today. And people need to be reminded that this president has been over his head and swimming in the wrong direction. You know, many people feel he's a nice guy, but you know what? We just can't afford him any longer. We've got to get him out of office if we're going to create jobs, rise the incomes, and a brighter future for the next generation."
Elections are decided on phrases and word packages that are efficient yet not overly simplistic.
"It's the economy, stupid," was famously the message that drove Bill Clinton's campaign against George H.W. Bush. Lots of other phrases have framed campaigns, including "compassionate conservative" and "hope and change."
When Ronald Reagan defeated a sitting president, he introduced the "misery index" and famously asked, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"
That index and that question grew out of the record of the incumbent president and made sense in the context of an appeal to change course. The challenger was urging the electorate to look back over what the sitting president had done and measure it against what he had promised, and to choose.
Neither Govs. Reagan nor Clinton had to spend much time explaining what they were saying. Both could count on the experience of the average American to hear the brief message -- condensed and repeated again and again -- and to extrapolate what the challenger was communicating.
On Saturday I heard Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner ask two governors for an opinion on "Keystone." Neither he nor they had to explain to the audience what it meant.
Nor does Gov. Romney have to explain "Keystone," or any of the other words and phrases on my list. All he has to do is keep the election focused on them, a task he has been performing quite well. This comes to the dismay of the president and the Chicago gang, who would rather talk about anything but the president's record.
Examiner Columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2012/04/messaging-2012-election/522261
That's part of an answer Gov. Romney gave to me on Friday's radio show. If he's right, it's very good news for everyone hoping to defeat President Obama in November.
The question I had asked: "Governor, with a couple of minutes left, there is a list of a dozen words I carry around with me, maybe a couple more -- Obamacare, stimulus, unemployment, debt, deficit, gas prices, Keystone, Gulf oil spill, EPA, Solyndra, Boeing, Gibson Guitar, Fast and Furious, GSA, Israel, flexibility. Are you afraid of any of those words, Governor? Do you want those words to sort of cue the conversations that are going to drive this election?"
If Romney is right, and the collective American consciousness has absorbed the impact of those words, the president has very little chanced to redefine the election no matter how often he repeats his choice of words and phrases, which include Bain, silver spoon and the 1 percent.
If voters are talking about and thinking about my list, they are also thinking about the president's record on those words, and it is record of failure.
Romney's full answer to my question:
"I think they demonstrate the failure of this presidency. I mean, he laid out what he thought success would be defined by, and on his own measures, he has failed. He has not created jobs, there have been one problem after another. You've described a number of them in that long list, and I was listening pretty carefully. I don't think there are any of those things that are not part of the American consciousness today. And people need to be reminded that this president has been over his head and swimming in the wrong direction. You know, many people feel he's a nice guy, but you know what? We just can't afford him any longer. We've got to get him out of office if we're going to create jobs, rise the incomes, and a brighter future for the next generation."
Elections are decided on phrases and word packages that are efficient yet not overly simplistic.
"It's the economy, stupid," was famously the message that drove Bill Clinton's campaign against George H.W. Bush. Lots of other phrases have framed campaigns, including "compassionate conservative" and "hope and change."
When Ronald Reagan defeated a sitting president, he introduced the "misery index" and famously asked, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"
That index and that question grew out of the record of the incumbent president and made sense in the context of an appeal to change course. The challenger was urging the electorate to look back over what the sitting president had done and measure it against what he had promised, and to choose.
Neither Govs. Reagan nor Clinton had to spend much time explaining what they were saying. Both could count on the experience of the average American to hear the brief message -- condensed and repeated again and again -- and to extrapolate what the challenger was communicating.
On Saturday I heard Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner ask two governors for an opinion on "Keystone." Neither he nor they had to explain to the audience what it meant.
Nor does Gov. Romney have to explain "Keystone," or any of the other words and phrases on my list. All he has to do is keep the election focused on them, a task he has been performing quite well. This comes to the dismay of the president and the Chicago gang, who would rather talk about anything but the president's record.
Examiner Columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2012/04/messaging-2012-election/522261
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