Rick Lowry (National Review): "Mitt Romney has to win a Choice Election"

[brooklynite]

Politico:

Mitt Romney has to win a choice election.

...snip...

Likewise, no miraculous intervention from the outside is going to save Romney. It all comes down to him. Romney is not a natural ideologue, nor — obviously — a natural backslapper. But he is a data-obsessed salesman. He should be pitching his program with all the zeal and airtight attention to detail of a presentation for a Bain Capital business deal.

...snip...

At this point, almost every day, every hour that Romney isn’t spelling out the programmatic differences between him and the president — and how they will affect people — is lost time.

...snip...

I sympathized with Ann Romney when she told all the amateur political consultants to back off the other day. She’s right that running for president is hard. But what Mitt Romney has to do is relatively easy. He has to make an unrelenting case for his program, and pitched particularly to the practical concerns of middle-class voters. He has to give the public compelling reasons to pick him in an election that will be a choice, not a referendum.

Let me know how that works out...

[BeyondGeography]

1. Get Bain with it...great advice there, Rich

Just tell the commoners how he's gonna pump-and-dump 'em. They'll go for it.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. Obama and the Democrats defined the field

The entire Dem convention was about making it a choice election rather than a referendum on Obama. They won that battle handily. So, yes, of course Romney has to make it a choice election...because it already is one. Obama made sure it would be.

Why did Obama do that?

Because Mitt can't win a choice election. The entire GOP strategy this year was to make it a referendum election. It's still one, in their minds. Most GOPers even to this day will say, well, I don't particularly like Romney, but... Who on Earth is voting FOR Romney? Nobody, that's who. Even those voting "for" Romney are in fact voting AGAINST Obama. They say it themselves. There's no way Romney can win a choice election. Nobody wants to vote for him. Not even the people who are voting for him are FOR him.

But Rich Lowry has to play the card he's been dealt. The Obama people outmaneuvered the GOP deftly with the convention and overall strategy. The message was clear: this is a choice. Now Lowry wants to claim a "choice," since it's a fait accompli.

[Lisa D]

3. Nice post.

[libguard]

4. Heck of a job Bainly.

[wilt the stilt]

5. I'm in high level sales

and Romney is a terrible salesman. I can tell he doesn't ever listen to anyone. He put together deals but he was not the front man.