The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : RE: Man With A Plan

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RE: Man With A Plan

By Philip Klein on 2.27.07 @ 10:51AM

Regarding the leaked Romney campaign plan James mentioned below, I found this part interesting:

The plan concedes that, with McCain and Giuliani in the race, Romney is unlikely to be the top pick for those voters looking for a "war/strong leader." His goal appears to be establishing himself as a credible second choice for those voters, but the first pick for voters looking for an energetic, optimistic, and innovative chief executive. (A page titled "Own the future" dubs McCain the past, Giuliani the present, and Romney the future. )

In other words, Giuliani is the post-9/11 candidate, but Romney wants to be the post-post-9/11 candidate. He wants to lead us beyond to the period of time during which the focal point of political life is our reaction to 9/11. Interesting, but I don't think Republicans are quite ready to go there yet. Also, given that he wants to run as the "energetic, optimistic, and innovative chief executive," I wonder if he miscalculated by going too far to position himself as a social conservative. His positions on social issues could have still evolved, but in a more subtle way, and he didn't have to lead with them or draw so much attention to his new found beliefs. Instead, he may have been better off pitching himself first as a charismatic, problem-solving CEO type, and then only secondarly as a newly-minted social conservative.