Mitt, Myth, and Monsters
Mitt Romney has a problem. He is within shouting distance of
a long-sought dream, the Presidency. He
is facing one of the most vulnerable incumbents in modern memory. He is running as a highly successful
businessman in the midst of a tepid economic recovery, marked by persistently
high unemployment. He has an opponent who
is viscerally detested by 40% of the country. He has Republican Governors and
State Legislatures lined up to suppress Democratic voters. He has an unlimited
war chest. He even has a huge
international crisis to distract Mr. Obama and provide scary and even gruesome
images. And yet, he’s not ahead by 10 points.
It’s been noticed by the party pros, who have given him a
long list of suggestions, starting with “shake up your campaign team.” It’s been noticed by Republican Congressional
and Senatorial candidates-some of whom are even talking about bipartisanship. It’s been noticed by the professional GOP
media/publicists, who fugue between trashing Obama and telling Mitt what he’s
been doing wrong. And it was noticed at
the “Values Voter Forum”, the annual Earth Day (without the Earth part) for the
religious right, organized by Tony Perkins, where the pure of soul (Newt was
there last year) come to testify as to their fealty to conservative values and
voice their willingness to use charitable religious donations to support the
GOP.
What gives? How does
the guy who methodically dispatched one opponent after another in the primary,
using all the weapons of a modern political campaign, suddenly lose his way?
Well, actually, he hasn’t.
He’s still playing the game the way he did a nine months ago-pouncing on
any gaffes, trying to capitalize on any crises, coordinating (not openly, of
course) with stupendous amounts of Superpac cash that invest in attack ads,
avoiding discussing his own plans except in generalities, and using his
surrogates to fire from multiple directions.
What he’s finding, however, is that the primary isn’t the
general election.
First, the quality of the opposition isn’t the same. Obama
fended off Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
That took talent and toughness. Romney
drew mostly second tier candidates, many with committed bases, but without broader appeal. Some self-destructed (Bachmann, Perry, Cain)
some fizzled (Pawlenty, Huntsman) and some ended up talking to themselves
(Gingrich, Santorum and Paul). That
group was tailor-made for the patient-but-ruthless, well-resourced, and
“grown-up” Romney. The GOP primary voter
wanted love, but what they really wanted was to win. Romney built a Presidential-looking
battleship, and they signed on.
The second is more personal.
Many Republicans are united in hatred of a mythological Obama. They really believe the most fevered
fantasies of the wildest paranoiacs. In
the primary, that’s just fine. But the
general election is different; you are preaching to a different choir. What will prized independent and undecided
voters react to? More importantly, what
myth sells?
Myth making is part of pretty much every high profile
campaign. Professionals may call it
something else, “narrative”, but at rock bottom, it is a story, either buffed up
or muddied up, depending on the teller.
Myth is long on images and short on details. Mitt has his own personal Myth; business
titan, successful governor, Olympics savior, and deeply caring and
compassionate man.
Obama, of course, had his chosen Myth: healer, Nobelist,
above party, all the “hopey-changy” stuff.
The Hope Myth ran right into the realities of governing, of running two
wars, Obama’s personal shortcomings, and a wolf pack of an opposition. The Hope Myth is dead, and Obama knows it. The
Obama narrative is now down to two things; his actual record, which is mixed,
and the GOP mythical Obama-as-the-alien-socialist-eroder-of-military-and-moral-strength-monster-under-the-bed.
Monster Obama is shorthand for the GOP, and the perfect dog
whistle for the base. They love sticking pins into their Obama Voodoo Doll. It was just this past week that Kansas (the entire state) agree to look past Obama's parentage and let him on the ballot. But Monster Obama
has led to laziness in thinking, including in the Romney campaign, which sees
it as the Occam’s Razor to all challenges.
Obama is always wrong, and he’s a Monster to boot.
So, what’s not working?
Well, not everyone hears the dog-whistle. There are a lot of voters out there who
haven’t made up their minds yet, but don’t buy the Monster label. They see Obama as flawed and as his record as
mixed, just not a Monster. So, seeking
better, they ask themselves two simple questions of Romney. What kind of person is he, and what are his
plans for them and the country?
That’s where Mitt runs into trouble. He doesn’t want to
disclose his plans, and Ryan is under similar constraints. He’s clearly concerned that the details might
be unpopular with many of those he hopes to convince. And, as to his feelings towards the general
electorate, well, earlier this week a video surfaced of a Romney fundraiser with
private equity types in which he tells his listeners that Obama supporters are
“the 47 percent…who are dependent on government, who believe they are victims, who believe that they are entitled to health
care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”
Ouch. 47% of us are moochers. That’s a lot of contempt for
one Presidential candidate.
And, did I mention that Obama is a Monster? If not, I'm sure it will come up again.
MM
