Despite loss, Mitt’s still man to beat
WASHINGTON — The dominoes are dropping Mitt Romney’s way. When Jim Demint says he’s not just “comfortable” but actually “excited” about Romney, you know the GOP has handed Rick Santorum the cigarette and blindfold.
“For the first time, I’m beginning to feel a little more at ease with our situation,” a veteran Republican consultant volunteered.
Yet there’s no time for celebration for Romney or the party. Notwithstanding his impressive victory in Illinois, Romney has lurched between peak and valley, prevailing mainly on the strength of greater piles of cash and a more robust organization.
Now that Romney’s inevitability is apparent, party elders have altered their downtrodden tune. Before Illinois, many rolled their eyes and made anonymous invidious comparisons to Bob Dole and John Mccain — the strongest available candidates who ended up cannon fodder for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
To avoid that same fate in November, it’s time for Romney to find his A-game. Here’s what party mandarins are whispering even as they climb onboard:
l Find a discipline transplant — fast. Romney has too many unforced errors. He’s overcompensating for his sometimes robotic persona, but too much spontaneity creates too many verbal gaffes.
l Bulk up an uneven staff. It’s time to recruit what one elder calls “bigger guns and thinkers.”
l Focus on the VP pick. Sarah Palin was a gutsy call that failed spectacularly. Romney needs a current or former governor or senator more conservative and likable who makes the base feel better about him.
l Change the narrative. Etch A Sketch is a blip, not a fiasco. But it feeds into the widespread belief, abetted by the Obama opposition research team, that Romney believes whatever he needs to believe at a given moment.
“He needs a new message, and it can’t be, ‘Everything about Obama is bad,’ ” said Ed Rollins, who ran Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign. “He has to give independents a reason to vote for him.”
The good news for Romney is that he has seven-plus months for course corrections. The downside is he needs serious retooling to repair the damage — and the economy complicates his core rationale by continuing to improve.