For months I have read more times than I can count, that first and foremost a politician needs to define himself for the public, before his opponent defines him in a negative light. With only a few hours remaining in July, for all practical purposes we are now in August, and less than 100 days away from election day. My jaw dropped while browsing Google News, I read this headline from the AP: Romney now seeking to introduce himself to voters. According to the article, "the likely Republican presidential nominee still isn't well-known to most voters."
Ya think? Just last Tuesday, Chuck Todd on his Daily Rundown on MSNBC talked about how the last 60 days have been "a battle to basically define Romney's biography."
[Talking about ad where President Obama speaks directly to the camera.]
When you see an ad like this is in the middle of a campaign, you can't help but wonder whether, quote a campaign is starting to see issues with their own personal rating. Another explanation the tv ad market in battleground states has become so saturated that this is an attempt by having the president speak directly to the camera to break through the clutter. It's a 60-second ad, by the way. Romney still has not had a personalized ad of his own like this. We've not really seen him direct to camera. We've had a paid biographical ad. During the general election campaign, not one from him. Romney's ads have all been tracked by someone else.
[plays beginning of "What would a Romney presidency be like? day one --]
And it's one of those things that when you sit here and we talk about the last 60 days, a battle to basically define Romney's biography, it is striking that you haven't had a Romney ad, Romney to camera, doing something, talking about his own biography or his own plans.
The Republican mindset has been to make the campaign entirely a referendum on President Obama, and nothing else. They want to paint President Obama as a failure, but absolutely don't want to provide detailed plans of what Romney would do different. Nor do they want to provide an honest biography of who Romney really is. As
David Maraniss points out, "There are Obama doubters and haters out there who claim with righteous anger that they are “vetting” the president, something they say the mainstream media never did." And there you have it, up until now the entire Republican strategy for defeating President Obama, go negative, all negative, all the time.
We already know the "anybody but Obama" crowd has already decided to vote for Romney. They aren't voting for Romney, they are voting against President Obama, and would vote for anybody on the ticket against President Obama. The people Romney needs to attract are the independent undecided voters, and unless they have a method of pushing those voters to start watching Fox News and come down with a severe case of Fox Geezer Syndrome, they're going to have rethink their strategy.
After more than 10 years of politicking in his lust to be President of the United States, Romney is just now realizing Americans don't know who Romney really is? Now he's decided to try and fix that, while continuing to maintain his secrecy about his time at Bain, hiding years of income tax returns, and so many other issues reporters have been asking questions about. This on the same day we learned that a Romney aide, Rick Gorka, yelled "Kiss my ass" at reporters, who were frustrated because after following Romney around for a week during his disastrous romp overseas to get his picture taken with dignitaries, Romney had only answered three of their questions. Reporters have a job to do. When Romney refuses to talk to reporters, they still have to do their jobs, so they find things to write about the candidate who refuses to talk to them. Will Romney finally decide to give reporters more access, and actually talk to them? After the disaster the overseas trip was, the problem, as Robert Shrum points out:
Whatever the cause, there is reason to think that Romney is not ready on day one—or day three hundred—for the demand of leading America in a complicated and dangerous world. There’s more than a chance that, with his gifts of misjudgment, he would be dangerous in the White House.
One thing is sure: Romney is dangerous to his own campaign. His handlers will do everything they can to keep him strapped to that message box until the election. They doubtlessly wish they had gone to Ohio or Florida instead of the land of small roads and small houses. But if he had stayed home, who knows what might have emerged from the mouth of this unnatural, animatronic politician if he had stumbled off script? Remember “I like being able to fire people”?
You see, Mitt can’t help himself—even when he’s supposed to be pre-canned. Go back to that fundraising dinner with Sheldon Adelson and company; oops, I mean breakfast. Romney had scheduled the dinner for Tisha B’AB, a Holy Day when observant Jews fast for 25 hours. At the rescheduled breakfast the morning, he casually let slip an ethnic stereotype. “Jewish culture,” he said, is responsible for Israel’s prosperity and the disparity between the Israeli and Palestinian economies. That is both inaccurate and insensitive. It’s a good thing Romney left the country right afterwards—or he might have said “some of his best friends are...”
The Ugly American: Mitt Romney’s Disastrous Overseas Excursion
One thing's for sure, the ad released by the Romney campaign today isn't going to do the trick, and he still isn't talking directly to the camera. He's driving around in a car, supposed talking to somebody sitting in the passenger seat. (No indication of a dog on the roof.):
As Jed Lewison has already pointed out, "It's a schmaltzy ad and if it weren't for the fact that it takes enormous liberties with the truth it wouldn't a bad one. But it does take those liberties and here are three of the worst."
So now that Romney realizes he's going to have to do a little bit more than simply campaign against President Obama. Will he actually take the risk of talking to the press more often? Or is he delusional enough to think that all he has to do is spend a ton of money putting out more homey ads like the one he released today and continue to maintain all his secrecy? Those reporters still have jobs to do.
UPDATE: As political junkies, or at least people who keep up with current events, we recognize Romney when we see his face on websites we visit or on the television news. We wonder who he really is morally and ethically. Is he honest? Is he hiding things? What are his plans for the economy? He is trying to keep so many secrets. It turns out that Romney is still completely unknown to some people in America in the sense of not having any idea who the he is at all:
He suspected his live-in girlfriend of planning an affair, and when he saw a picture of a man he didn't recognize on her Facebook page, it set him off, according to reports.
Lowell Turpin "angrily demanded to know who the male was," an Anderson County Sheriff's Department incident report states.
The answer, his girlfriend told him: presidential contender Mitt Romney.
Upset at the woman's "attempting to communicate with friends through her Facebook account," Turpin jerked her laptop computer from her grasp, smashed the machine into a wall, and then hit her in the face with his fist, according to reports.
The 40-year-old Turpin remains in the Anderson County Jail, charged with domestic assault in connection with the July 22 incident in Anderson County's Claxton community.
Report: Mitt Romney photo on Facebook sets off man, who assaults girlfriend
Smoking Gun has a copy of the police report.