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Presidential Debate 2012: How Romney Can Come Out The Winner

Ryan Shaw |
October 3, 2012 | 5:45 p.m. PDT

Columnist

If Romney does this, he may come out the winner of Wednesday's debate. (PBS NewsHour, Creative Commons)
If Romney does this, he may come out the winner of Wednesday's debate. (PBS NewsHour, Creative Commons)
As the first of three Presidential Debates for the 2012 Election kick off Wednesday night, both candidates will look to establish a Presidential brand. As the challenger, Romney has to work double-time at the debate tonight. Not only does he have to build up his own Presidential image, he has to bait Obama into undoing his. 

Not any easy job by any means—but this is politics. 

Here are some things Romney can do if he wants to come out on top in tonight’s debate:

Put Obama on defense early and often.  When you’re playing defense, you can’t play offense. When you’re not playing any offense you look weak and defensive. Weak and defensive isn’t Presidential. Obama’s biggest strength is his ability as a visionary—telling a story about his future image of America. Putting Obama on defense forces him out of visionary mode and into finger-waving mode. Defensive Obama is lecturer Obama—and this is exactly what Romney wants Obama to be tonight. 

Putting Obama on defense also moves the discussion to his near completed term as President and away from what he will do in the next term. Again, the strategy here is to take away the visionary strength of Obama. And, well, let’s face it, Obama's term as President hasn’t exactly been rosy. For one thing, unemployment is still too high. Romney needs to make sure everyone that tunes into the debate tonight walks away knowing just how high unemployment is. 

Bring a softer tone for the crowd in the middle.  Tone is just as important as content when it comes to messaging in politics. While Romney works to put Obama on defense, he needs to remain assertive, but not negative. For example, rather than using the word “failure”, a better word would be “ineffective.” Voters like Obama as a person, so when you attack his character, it won’t work. The word “failure” implies a lack of character, the word “ineffective” attacks job performance. Remember those unemployment numbers? 

Put economic competence on full display.  Romney has been polling well when it comes to which candidate voters think will be better on the economy. He needs to use this to his advantage and exploit it. It’s the economy, stupid. So talk about it. Romney’s business background gives him credibility. The unemployment figures give him leverage. He needs to make this election about the economy, and he needs to start hammering it home tonight during the debate. Romney needs to be that rich guy that can make all of us rich, too.

Now let’s sit back and see if he can pull any of this off.   

 

Follow Columnist Ryan Shaw on Twitter here.



 

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