A number of folks have commented that Romney needs to come off as being human in his first debate with President Obama on October 3rd.
True enough … Romney does need to appear to be human.
Not everyone makes for a strong public figure. Thomas Jefferson was considered a dynamic thinker only when his words are considered. He did not publicly portray strength and leadership in public — yet when the going got tough he had enough wits and humility about him to step down as governor of Virginia so that someone with a leadership personality could take the office and to do justice by the citizens of Virginia.
For Romney – appearing to be human (someone that exudes considerate thought and empathy) will be a herculean task inasmuch as Romney needs to overcome his 47% remarks, the negatives of being the founder and chief proponent of Bain (this is a philosophical argument, but when you refer to your firm as being a harvester of other companies you really need to explain why this isn’t related to a Soylent Green economy), being unwilling to follow the example set by his father of laying your cards on the table to show that you have nothing to hide (the standard of showing the last 10 years of tax returns as a minimum), and being someone that has published an 87 page ‘50 Point Plan‘ on his website that offers no details at all about how the rhetorical ‘Plan’ would have a chance of ever happening … The 50 Point Plan does a great job of pointing out what needs fixing but offers few clues as to how to do that.
Romney needs also to portray how he would not be a stooge of the Tea Party and folks like Rush Limbaugh, who famously advised him: ‘This election isn’t about you, it is about Obama‘. Romney also needs to explain how he could keep his PROMISE to raise defense spending by approximately 16%, so that it equals 4% of GDP ($578B) while balancing the debt and how he would go about his campaign PROMISE of creating 12,000,000 jobs with four years.
I have a few other thoughts … but Romney needs to get beyond these if he wants to convince folks that he is a better option than the devil we already know.
President Obama is not the perfect candidate either — but we’ve come to know him. In most respects President Obama is just President George Bush’s third term with healthcare reform thrown in … and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell thrown out.
