The last time we heard that the Romney campaign was going to change direction was shortly before David Corn at Mother Jones magazine released the now infamous 47% tape on September 17. Supposedly the Romney campaign was going to get more specific about details. This was while the campaign was dealing with the fallout from a Politico story that the Romney campaign was in disarray. We'll call it Romney Reboot 9.0.
The GOP nominee, in speeches and television advertisements this week, will roll out more details about his plans to help the middle class by creating jobs, cutting the deficit and developing more domestic energy resources, advisers said. The specifics are designed to give voters a clearer sense of what Romney would do as president.
Romney, Obama turn campaign focus back to economy, The Washington Post, September 16, 2012
I haven't seen those details materialize. Have you? Did the Romney campaign get sidetracked playing defense when the 47% tape was released and simply forgot to release all those details they promised?
Fast forward to today and check out an article by Robert Wright in The Atlantic. Wright assesses the state of the presidential election now and tries to predict which route will be taken by Mitt Romney to try once again to turn the flailing campaign around. Wright offers offers four options:
1. Romney has a previously undiscovered sense of humor!
(snip)
2. Sudden and unexpected foreign policy switcheroo!
(snip)
3. Suddenly it's Obama who seems off balance and gaffe-prone!
(snip)
4. Romney surprisingly good in presidential debates!
The Coming Romney Comeback Narrative
(Note: Due to copyright issues, I removed the text after each item. If you have time, please read the article for the explanation of each of the four reasons because it is quite good.)
Wright concludes that the first option, using humor, is the one that provides the most potential. After all, the mainstream media took notice yesterday when Romney used self-deprecating humor at the Clinton Global Initiative. Even on MSNBC last night, Ed Schultz was impressed with Romney's successful use of humor.
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned in this election season, by the way, it is that a few words from Bill Clinton can do a man a lot of good,” Mitt Romney said to peals of laughter during a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday. ”All I got to do now is wait a few days for that bounce to happen.”
What Bill Clinton has done for Barack Obama
But was this an outlier? There have been so many times Romney's attempt at humor has fallen flat. Joking about his
own birth certificate didn't go over very well. It was deemed by most to be racist rather than humorous. More recently we've learned that Romney's comments about
airplane windows not opening was intended to be a joke. Once again the humor was lost on most people.
Rachel Maddow didn't see the joke: "I don't think he was joking because he couldn't possibly be joking about his wife almost being in a plane crash. You can't joke about that especially with her standing right there. So did he ...? I mean ... has he never seen
Goldfinger?"
Is humor the new tool Mitt Romney should pull out of his magic bag of tricks? Newt Gingrich seems to think there is some potential in Romney using humor during the debates. Gingrich specifically brings up the option in an opinion published at Human Events today.
Use humor
Reagan and Kennedy both had this wonderful knack of using humor to make points.
President Obama is a detached, often stiff person who overestimates his competence (the next time you see a story on the Middle East remember he got a Nobel peace prize for having done nothing).
No president in my lifetime has been as vulnerable to humor as President Obama.
How to debate President Obama
Vulnerable to humor? Wow! Maybe somebody should explain to Gingrich that there is a huge difference between people on the right telling jokes, usually racist ones, about President Obama and most people finding those jokes funny. That joke Romney told about his own birth certificate comes to mind. How well did that go over with anybody besides the most racist people on the right, Newt? Those people are already going to be voting for Mitt Romney. Isn't the idea supposed to be to get people in the middle to vote for Romney? And of course, President Obama is so
susceptible to birther joke humor.
Who knows? Perhaps Romney should be auditioning professional comedy writers to help him with his campaign. Maybe one of them will come up with the one-line zinger that will turn the campaign around for Romney. Certainly, the Romney campaign's attempt to recycle Reagan's infamous Are you better now over than you were four years ago? line didn't help to turn the campaign in Romney's favor after the conventions.
Is there a one-line joke out there waiting to be written that Romney can use during the debates that will convince the majority of Americans that Mitt Romney really is the The Confidence Fairy and if they vote for Romney everything will magically turn around in this country?
Or perhaps, Robert Wright's conclusion will work out for Romney.
And who knows? Maybe the new narrative will kick up the perfect storm: "A new Mitt Romney -- sporting a previously hidden sense of humor, showing a new sure-footedness in foreign policy, and facing a surprisingly gaffe-prone President Obama who seemed thrown off balance by growing global chaos -- exceeded expectations at last night's debate ...."
What do you think? Should President Obama and his team be worried about the new Romney 10.0 who will show up at the first debate next week ready to release the all time zinger of political zingers?
Yeah, I didn't think so either. Romney should leave comedy to the professionals.