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Romney needs make clear his plan for economic growth

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On FoxNews Sunday yesterday, Bill Kristol pointed to a poll which showed why Mitt Romney is lagging in the polls despite the sour economy:

“I think the Fox News poll actually has the key to what the problem is for the Mitt Romney campaign. Do you think Barack Obama has a clear plan for improving the economy or not? Yes, 41; no 53. It’s not great for an incumbent president. The economy is slow. And you are only at 41-53,” said Kristol.

“Do you think his challenger, Gov. Romney, has a clear plan for improving the economy or not? Yes, 27; No, 55,” he continued.

“I don’t think you can beat an incumbent president, even if the economy is slow, if 27 percent of the voters think you as the challenger don’t have a clear plan for improving the economy,” Kristol said.

Although Kristol tends to be a Gloomy Gus. He’s on to something here. So, just read the whole thing.

Given how close the polls are — and how high are Mr. Obama’s negatives, Romney could vault into the lead with a good one-two punch, one, fire back against the Democrat’s dishonest TV ads and two, make clear his plan for improving the economy and spell it out repeatedly at campaign stop and in TV spots.

Americans are far more familiar with Mr. Obama than they are with Mr. Romney, making it much harder for the Democrat to move his numbers.  If voters don’t think the president, after three-and-one-half years in office has a plan on the economy, there’s little he can do in the next four months to convince them he does.

Romney, however, remains unfamiliar to most voters, particularly those who have yet to tune in to the campaign.

With just over one-quarter of voters believing Romney has a clear plan for improving the economy, it’s amazing he’s running as well as he is when the economy top voters’ concerns.  Imagine how much better his numbers would be if just 40 percent of Americans thought he had a clear plan.

Romney needs to avoid the mistake made by another Northeastern Republican governor, Tom Dewey.  He can’t run a complacent campaign, hoping the incumbent’s negatives will sink him.  He needs to learn from a certain Western governor who not only campaigned for change, but put forward an economic plan spelling out how he planned to effect that change.

RELATED: WaPo: It’s looking like Obama has nothing new to offer on jobs, economy:

Voters routinely put jobs and the economy first in their concerns when contemplating their vote, and any other issue shows up a distant second.  (In most polls, the second-place issue is the federal deficit, which isn’t a good topic for Obama, either.)

Comments

  1. If I were advising Romney, I’d tell him to challenge Obama to a debate, in Ohio, on economic policy, before the convention. Not one of those phony “debates” which are really just Q&A’s moderated by a liberal, but one where they would debate economic policy with each other and answer questions prepared by economists and business leaders.

  2. It seems as though Mitt´s campaign is much like that of John McCain´s of four years ago. It´s lacking specifics. It´s one thing to repeal Obamacare but what can he offer to replace it? He and his staff need to get together with Paul Ryan and develop a plan to sell to the voters, especially independents. It´s not enough to criticize the tax burden inherent in Obamacare and how it and EPA regulations stifle economic growth. Aparte from the Keystone Project he needs to identitfy those regulations and how with Republican majorities in both houses they will be repealed to give businesses the green light to invest and grow the economy. Large corporation who have operations overseas to avoid the high tax should be told that they will have a tax holiday to bring that money to the U.S and invest it and that corporate taxes will be lowered to be competitive with other nations. He, his staff, meeting with both Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor should be able to make reasonable projections, that given those actions, what the unemployment rate will be and how much will the deficit be reduced and when the voter should be able to see the results. Finally, he should pick Governor Susana Martinez as his running mate. This will satisfy the party´s desire for an hispanic, albeit they want Marco Rubio, who swears he doesn´t want it and could be too high profile for Mitt, and she might help attract more women to vote the ticket. While Rob Portman is knowledgeable and dull and many believe he does not evil to the campaign, his presence would allow the left to paint the Republican Party as on old white man´s party.

  4. ROMNEY’S ECONMIC PLAN IS THE SAME THING BUSH DID.

    Citation please.

    LETS TRY IT AGAIN
    MAYBE THIS TIME IT WORKS

    Let’s see, the unemployment rate under Bush was less than 6% for much of his term. The unemployment rate under Obama has never been less than 8%. In addition, the debt has increased under Obama at a faster rate than it did under Bush. I’m thinking Bush’s economic policy would be welcome about now.

  8. George has clearly confused Romney with Obama. ****Obama’s**** economic plan is “Let’s try the same things Bush did, only three to four times more so, and see if it works.”

    – Bush increased both entitlements and regulation – and Obama, still more.
    – Bush ran deficits around $400B per year – and Obama, around $1.5T.
    – Bush re-appointed Greenspan who created a housing bubble with his 1% interest rates – and Obama re-appointed Bernanke, who has created a Treasury bubble with his 0% interest rates.

    And the results are predictable: Bush had a slightly weak recovery, one that took a bit longer than usual to create large numbers of jobs. While Obama has one of the worst, most sluggish and hope-free “recoveries” in American history. I must say, I saw it coming.

    But I digress. I’m here to say that Kristol is right. I don’t know if Romney even has an economic plan. I couldn’t begin to tell you what it is. And I’m planning to vote for the guy (very reluctantly).

  12. It was 5% unemployment before the sh.. Hit the fan

    Are you telling.me Bush’s policies were great
    Then you do want to continue Bush’s legacy

    You know Bush is really disliked by most Americans. You must be aware of this.
    Proof:
    NOBODY WANTS HIM AROUND!!!!!!!

  14. Technically, the excrement hit the ventilator when the Democrats took Congress. It’s been blowing feces ever since.

    What has Obama done, exactly, that is so great it makes his Trillion Dollar Deficits and consistent 17%+ U6 unemployment worth it?

  15. With polls showing that the majority oppose Obamacare and the country is headed in the wrong direction, you would think that that would be enough to send him to a massive defeat. Yet, his likeability ratings is over 50% while Romney´s is about 29%. Obama still has the majority of the black, hispanic, and women supporting him. Those plus the liberal white men could return him to the Oval Office. While just his agenda is scary, he might get to nominate up to three justices ala Sotomayor and Kagen to the SCOTUS and God knows what this country will look like in twenty years.

  16. Obama being “likeable” is clearly based on his race alone.

    Seriously, “what’s to like” there?
    – He can read the Teleprompter well… so, what?
    – Can He think/speak on his feet? No.
    – Is He refreshingly honest? No.
    – Refreshingly humble? No.
    – Refreshingly forthright about His past; able to make fun of Himself? No.
    – Has he said anything memorable – even one line, from his many speeches, that people remember? No.
    – Has He taken America in a positive direction? No.
    – Is He known for His authentic, genuine caring about people behind the scenes (as Bush was, to those who weren’t rabidly prejudiced against him)? No.
    – Is He known as a real grownup, a guy who never whines? No.

  17. – Is He actually goodlooking? No. (Not unless you like faces that combine a look of vapidity with touches of arrogance or possibly narcissism.)

  18. ILC

    With all the negativity that surrounds the man, as you so accurately point out, as well as what general consensus about Obamacare and the wrong direction. The groups mentioned in my previous comment that will still support him seem oblivious to his failings. Mitt needs to do something to raise his likeability percentage or he will lose. Senator McCain ran a terrible campaign, emphasizing his POW scars. He did little to endear himself to the electorate. Since the inception of television personality and looks trumps ideas and ability, viz a viz, Kennedy/Nixon, Nixon/Humphrey, Nixon/McGovern, Carter/Ford, Reagan/Carter, Clinton/Bush 41. Even though Nixon and Reagan were quite capable, you might say that presidential elections have degenerated into a beauty contest.