Ringside Politics With A Punch

There are just a few short weeks until the presidential election and most polls show a tight race nationally. While the mainstream news media is declaring President Obama significantly ahead in swing state polls, some analysts like Dick Morris of Fox News believe that the pollsters are skewing the data to give the incumbent an advantage.

Whatever the exact poll numbers, almost everyone believes the outcome is still in doubt. Yet, with the situation in our country and throughout the world, this election should not be close at all. It is an outrage that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is not leading by a huge margin.

Our economy is horrible, the Middle East is in flames, our culture is in shambles and race relations have deteriorated since Obama took office. In every important test, the President has not only failed, but made the situation much worse. He promised to cut the deficit in half, create more jobs, bring a greater measure of peace to the Arab World and help heal a divided nation. In reality, the deficit has skyrocketed, jobs have decreased, the Arab World is in turmoil and race relations are worsening, not improving. 

The liberal news media will not tell the true story, so it all rests on the Republican presidential candidate to set the record straight. On this measure, Governor Romney has been a failure. Sadly, he has been a very poor communicator in this race.

Gone is the candidate who eviscerated his Republican opponents in the primaries. Voters are now witnessing Romney playing the role of the “gentleman” in his match-up against Obama. Today, his campaign aides say he will adopt a “softer” tone to appeal to the moderate undecided voters.

This is exactly the wrong strategy against the President. To win, Romney needs to take off the mitts, and aggressively challenge Obama on his entire record, not just the economy. Governor Romney wants to focus strictly on economic matters; however, many other issues deserve attention and can be used to rally conservatives and Independents to his campaign.

Unfortunately, Romney has allowed the media to sidetrack his message with a variety of bogus issues, including the “bombshell” video taken at a Florida fundraising dinner in May.  

In the video, Romney tells a small group of wealthy donors some basic facts about the electorate. To win, he will need to appeal to the undecided, Independent voters. The ones not paying taxes are most likely in Obama’s camp. This supposedly controversial comment was misconstrued by the media into a statement that Romney does not care about 47% of the electorate. In reality, he was admitting that he cannot focus on that group of voters and needs to worry about those he can attract.

It is time that Romney stopped playing defense on issues such as his tax returns and started playing offense. He does not have a woeful record to defend; it is President Obama who should be on the defensive.

To woo undecided voters, Romney needs to convince them they are not better off under Obama and the country is not moving in the right direction. He needs to persuade voters to “fire” Obama and hire a new person, a candidate willing to take the country on a different course.

Some voters find Obama to be a likeable person who is well meaning, but Romney needs to dispel that notion. He should be educating voters about Obama’s radical roots, his radical mentors, his radical philosophy and his radical agenda.

Romney cannot expose the President by being a gentleman and playing “nice.” In politics, nice guys finish last. Four years ago, John McCain played “nice” against Barack Obama and finished with 46% of the vote, losing in an Electoral College landslide.

To avoid that scenario, Romney needs to be honest, straightforward and direct with the American people about the dangers of an Obama second term. It is not just that Obama will wreck the economy even more. His failure to deal with radical Islam is another growing problem.

Romney should outline how he will fix the economy, deal with radical Islam and counteract the spread of this dangerous ideology in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Romney should also be candid about the President’s divisive rhetoric, his class warfare and his racially divisive politics. The Governor should provide voters with his plan on how he will heal our country both culturally and economically.

The stakes are extremely high on November 6. Our country faces a fork in the road. Do we continue down the road to socialism, division and appeasement or not.