David Brooks hits the nail on the head yet again with his latest piece, “The Crowd Pleaser” regarding the Romney campaign and their need to add conviction and definition to the candidate.
Brooks writes, “He needs to step outside the cautious incrementalism that is the inevitable product of excessive polling and focus-group testing. He needs to find a policy like entitlement reform that is so important to him that he’s willing to risk losing the presidency over it. The eternal rule of presidential politics is that a candidate has to be willing to lose everything if he’s going to win everything.” Read the entire article.
Voters want to know more about Romney the man – not about Romney the brand. What makes him tick? What is he passionate about? What kind of leader will he be? Governing is about making hard choices and having the strength to stand by them. Voters react to leadership. They may not agree with a candidate on every issue, but they will respect the candidate more for standing by his or her beliefs.
If Romney wants to win, he needs to prove that he is more than just good marketing.