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Political Hay
What Romney Must Do
For starters, remind viewers why Obama himself said he’d be a one-term president.
Tonight, President Obama and Mitt Romney go “mano a mano” in the first of their three debates.
Fair or not, Romney is perceived as the underdog and some have argued that Romney must make his case in the first debate or it’s all over. While I believe that Romney has three bites at the apple, it is incumbent upon him to rise to the occasion against the incumbent.
So what must Romney do tonight and over the next several weeks to convince the American voter to unseat President Obama and elect him as the next President of the United States?
To begin with, Romney must plant the seeds of doubt on the Obama presidency and germinate them — fast.
It would be wise for Romney to draw attention to Obama’s unwillingness to accept responsibility for his actions. Romney must remind the nation that Obama proclaimed “a new era of responsibility” when he was sworn into office but has spent his term blaming ATMs, the Arab Spring, and tsunamis, amongst other things, for his shortcomings.
To pick up on this point, Obama recently told Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes, “As president I bear responsibility for everything — to some degree.” Romney could ask, “Could you imagine Harry Truman saying, “The buck stops here — to some degree? How far has the Democratic Party fallen?”
Romney should turn next to Obama’s incompetence in office. Let’s look at the deficit. Romney could say something along these lines:
President Obama, you pledged to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years. Yet in the past four years your spending policies have led to an increase in the deficit of $5 trillion — and counting.
The deficit doesn’t matter to you. If it did, you would have been able to tell David Letterman how large the deficit is.
So why should the American people believe you will reduce the deficit by one penny in the next four years when you couldn’t reduce it by one penny in the past four years?
When the third debate turns to foreign policy, Romney could remind voters of Obama’s ineptness concerning the terrorist attack in Libya which claimed the lives of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans:
Why did your administration tell the American people that the attacks in Benghazi were a spontaneous reaction to that Internet video?
The American people knew from day one that it was no accident that this attack was carried out on September 11th.
So why did it take eight days for your administration to acknowledge what the American people knew from day one? This was a terrorist attack.
Osama bin Laden might be dead but al Qaeda is alive and raising their flag in place of ours.
About the Author
Aaron Goldstein writes from Boston, Massachusetts.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (22) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 10.3.12 @ 7:03AM
What does Romney have to do to get his photo on an article that is about Romney?
Maybe we have to stop fixating on Obama and start thinking of Romney as a person who has more of an identity than "I'm not Obama"...
Von Mises Jr| 10.3.12 @ 7:44AM
This is NOT that hard. Obama lies. Joe Wilson was reprimanded for speaking out of turn and inarticulately telling the truth.
So the only thing Mitt needs to do in the three debates is to correct every one of Obama's lies with the facts.
You must realize that the Independents and Moderates that do not go out of the way to learn the truth are relegated to the MSM talking points that the liberal socialist approve. We cannot win over many leftist, but getting the truth to the people deprived of easy access to information is critical.
Once they are introduced to the 9/11/12 facts, "Fast and Furious" details and the recent corruption of using tax payer’s money unconstitutionally to pay Defense Contractor to delay Pink Slips; then the previously uninformed will be given the information they need to find what we already know.
SUBVET| 10.3.12 @ 10:23AM
Von...........I say piss him off and see how he acts.
Maybe he will use some of the words in one of his videos........right Mr. S. Jackson.
BcdErick| 10.3.12 @ 7:49AM
This simply misunderstands the challenge Romney faces. Romney has been making all of these points for moths and the LSM spins them away and sneers at him. Romney's "47%" remark was correct. And the LSM hysterically declared it had "cost him the election". They scream that about a lot of things Romney has said. The list is too long too long to detail here.. Romney should just be himself and keep doing what's he's been doing. The polls, as of today, are in a dead heat, 47-47.
BcdErick| 10.3.12 @ 7:56AM
That should read "...these points for months..."
Joellen| 10.3.12 @ 8:42AM
It's up to the American citizen to educate their family, friends and neighbors. We're at crunch time. Dont depend on the media - they are NOT the calvary. In fact they ARE the enemy. Take anyone you know to see 2016. Keep sending articles that depict the evil agenda of Obama and the leftist dem's. Where-ever you go engage one stranger in a conversation and leave them with something to think about. This is our revolution which we must be engaged in. It is our duty to defend this country within while our military is doing the same throughout the world. If we do it right now, on November 7th we can wake up with a new start. Dont whine, dont declare it hopeless, dont give out hopleless signs - fight this battle as if our country's destiny depends on it - it does.
Frank Drackman| 10.3.12 @ 9:11AM
Dude, you're writing's about as sharp as the Red Sox bullpen...
or starting rotation, infield, outfield, catcher, DH, bench, managers, coaches, farm teams, front office
Oh, and Fenway's overrated, I'd rather watch a game in Oakland or Baltimore, you know, with players who run the whole 90 feet to first...
OK, got the obligatory Red Sox insults done,
TOP 10 ZINGERS FOR ROMNEY TONITE!!
10: Show up 30 minutes late, quip that he thought Debate was at 9pm CPT ("Colored People's Time"i.e. late)
9: Devastating Reagan-esque Comback, "There you go again, BOY"
8: Alec Baldwin-ish "My Watch costs more than your House" retort to anythang the President(Peace be upon Him) says about the "47%" video
7: add "Peace be upon Him" to any mention of Preidents(Peace be upon Him) name..
I've got more....
Frank
Frank Drackman| 10.3.12 @ 9:14AM
Oh yeah, the Red Sox are so bad, even the Cubs are laughing at them...
Occam's Tool| 10.3.12 @ 4:45PM
Yeah, we are :-)
Frank Drackman| 10.3.12 @ 9:17AM
6: answer any direct questions from the President(Peace be upon Him) in "Rochester" dialect(hey, it's not as rediculous as Hilary Clinton's "I ain't no way Tarrrrrrrrr-ed"
Frank
Occam's Tool| 10.3.12 @ 4:47PM
7: Keep addressing the President as "Rastus"...
Occam's Tool| 10.3.12 @ 4:48PM
8: Keep asking Obama when he's going to be served his "Harlem Stinger..."
Frank Drackman| 10.3.12 @ 9:19AM
5: Avoid repeating "$10,000 bet" gaffe.
Instead, perform Rapper-esqe "Dis" of the President"Peace be upon Him" by "Making it Rain"
PCC| 10.3.12 @ 9:51AM
Mr. Goldstein's debate suggestions are not bad, and some are quite good, except for nearly every statistical reference.
The public is dazed and confused about numbers and rightly believes that each side has its own set of figures to try to prove its particular point.
Mr. Romney would do well to try to paint Mr. Obama as an unserious, detached president who has let every American down, and instead offer an alternative, inspiring vision of a re-energized America able and willing to compete and succeed, economically and politically, in the new global environment in which we find ourselves and, which we can proudly say, we helped to create.
Everything else is just promising to fix the potholes on every voter's street. If Mr. Romney chooses the "pothole" strategy, he will lose, decisively.
Frank Drackman| 10.3.12 @ 10:14AM
#4 have bucket of Church's Chicken delivered just before closing statements...
SUBVET| 10.3.12 @ 10:28AM
D.........man #10 is the best I say just piss him off to start with.
I say he is a thin skin.......................
Who Knows?| 10.3.12 @ 10:35AM
Romney is surging o Intrade.
He's up to almost 27%, today. From a bottom of 20%, if he gains one percent a day, he'll easily be over 50%.
Won't it be fun to mock the liberals who've ALREADY claimed the race is over?
Remember when Newt surged in the primary, and said he was a shoo in? And then crashed and burned.
PolishKnight| 10.3.12 @ 11:40AM
When beauty pageant contestants are asked hard questions, they often do what Aaron suggested for Romney on the 47% question: Try to ignore it and move on or say something pleasing to the audience.
But I don't think that's necessary in this case. He should work with the main point: That a significant portion of people don't pay taxes and observe that for the government to remain solvent, it needs more people working and paying taxes and the failure of Obama to do so. Turn this around to Obama's weakest spot: unemployment.
Bashing deficits is all very well and good, but no president in our lifetimes has done much about them. Clinton's "surplus" was either fictional or an accounting trick of using the social security "trust fund." Romney is unlikely to do much better. It's also an abstract concept most of the electorate isn't really turned on by. What would work better is to observe that the money spent hasn't been EFFECTIVE. Joe Six Pack (me) HATES it when money is spent on something that didn't work. Like windmills from China. He can pull off tons of two-fers that way. In addition, he should go for the jugular and point out that Biden didn't want stimulus jobs going to male construction workers. That would energize his base and generate sympathy from the working class.
Frank Drackman| 10.3.12 @ 1:30PM
#3, pull out portable CD player, play theme from "Whats Happening" everytime the President(Peace be upon Him) trys to talk.
Frank
kingsmill| 10.3.12 @ 6:17PM
Willard "the great businessman" and the only one who can beat BHO, has a campaign staff 1/2 the size of BHO, but the payroll is higher. BHO has run more ads to date than BHO. Inept.
kingsmill| 10.3.12 @ 6:18PM
should read:BHO has run more ads to date than Willard.
Occam's Tool| 10.3.12 @ 7:31PM
Mitt should ask Obama if the two CIA agents who were shot by Mexican police on August 24th got their guns from Fast and Furious...