Presidential elections are won on the basis of personal appeal and the ability to provide compelling leadership on the biggest issues of the day. In the opening stages of the general election race, Mitt Romney’s campaign seems prematurely willing to admit defeat on the first count, while telling Americans that there’s really only one big issue of the day — the economy. Neither of these is the right tack to take.
What’s more, there’s no reason for the Romney camp to take either of these positions. On the first, Romney just finished winning a bruising GOP primary battle largely on the basis of voters having judged him to be, in his own way, the most personally appealing candidate. GOP primary voters, for the most part, didn’t back Romney because they found his policy prescriptions, or past policy innovations, to be clearly superior to those of other candidates. Rather, they backed him, at least principally, because they viewed him to be the most presidential, the most electable — in short, the most personally appealing — choice.
