Bill Kristol tells us all how Romney is going to lose - sound and look Presidential. What a maroon.
But looks aren’t enough. Romney has to behave presidentially—more like a leader than a campaigner. Let Obama lower himself by acting as campaigner in chief rather than commander in chief. Let Obama be shrill. Let his campaign be petty. Meanwhile, Romney can lay out his governing agenda to restore our solvency, put us on a path to prosperity, attend to our security, and safeguard our liberty. Romney can visit the troops in Afghanistan and our ally Israel. Instead of giving rebuttals and prebuttals to Obama’s speeches, Romney can give serious speeches about the Constitution and the Supreme Court, the case for limited government and the threat of bankruptcy and penury, about undoing Obamacare and what will replace it. President Obama has failed to pass a big tax reform, failed to master the federal budget, failed to reform our out-of-control entitlements. The next president, Mitt Romney, can explain that he will step forward to do all of these things.
And he can do so in a presidential way. He can comment thoughtfully and soberly on the news of the day, rather than simply using news events to snipe at Obama’s handling of various issues. That’s what surrogates are for. He can make clear he is ready to deal with the full spectrum of topics a president has to handle, rather than acting as a candidate who says he’s going to focus on just one issue (e.g., jobs) because “that’s what the voters care about.” Let his super-PACs focus on single issues. Romney should speak to his fellow citizens, whose concerns are broader. When Democrats engage in farcical claims of a Republican “war on women,” he can let surrogates respond by accusing Democrats of a “war on moms.” But he should make clear that he doesn’t intend to divide Americans by gender, race, or ethnicity.
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