Every marriage requires work. This one especially
By Philip Hughes
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. The impending shotgun wedding between Mitt Romney and
the Republican electorate for the November election could end up being a successful match - provided that both partners work on it.
By now it should be obvious: Former Gov. Mitt Romney and the Republican electorate are ... scarcely a match made in heaven. The social conservative wing of the Republican Party has flirted with one candidate after another Michele Bachmann Rick Perry Herman Cain Newt Gingrich Rick Santorum in quest of a nominee who better captivates them than the former Massachusetts governor.
The result has been the drawn out Republican nominating process with all its ups and downs.
But it should also by now be obvious especially after Romneys decisive victory in Illinois last week that he and the Republican electorate are headed to the altar. This will not be a marriage of convenience; it will be more like a shotgun wedding forced on the parties by circumstances.
To be successful every marriage requires work. This one will especially both on the former governors part and on the part of the most conservative segments of the Republican Party. Otherwise both will fail in their most fervent and fervently sharedobjective: unseating President Obama in November.
So what will be needed for this pairing to be successful to keep it from breaking down into bickering recriminations and mutual blaming if Romney ends up missing the mark on Election Day?
The Republican electorate is going to have to think with its head not with its heart or its gut if it hopes to defeat Obama this fall.
Obamas 2008 victory was won on the backs of independent voters. Obama won them 52 percent to 44 percent over Sen. John McCain. Polls show that independent voters are already substantially alienated from Obama. They are up for grabs.
But in order to win in 2012 Republicans simply must win over these independents. This will require a candidate who can attract them not scare them off and repel them.
Republicans obviously find Obama so completely maddening that they are beside themselves to get rid of him. And with a debater like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and a culture warrior like former Sen. Rick Santorum in the race not to mention the libertarian purism of Rep. Ron Paul theres a natural impulse to want to see one or the other of these guys take on Obama.
But that would be self-indulgence of the highest order for Republican voters. It would also be self-defeating. These sharply defined combative polarizing candidates will simply repel independent voters driving them right back into the arms of Obama.
Which logically makes Romney the obvious Republican candidate. He can win over independents; the others cant. Its that simple.
So why cant the Republican electorate get comfortable with this logical self-interested
choice and embrace their increasingly apparent partner?
In a word conservatives dont trust Romney.
So especially in light of Eric Fehrnstroms Etch-a-Sketch comment this week former Governor Romneys biggest priority if hes going to make this shotgun wedding succeed must be to win the trust of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. And he must do so without driving away the independents.
So far Romney hasnt really sealed the deal with conservatives. Otherwise Santorum and Gingrich would already be headed to the showers.
What would do the trick for Romney with conservatives? My suggestion: offer three or four specific concrete pledges to conservatives on issues about which they care most deeply formulated so as to make it clear that if Romney accomplishes nothing else in his presidency he will at least deliver on those pledges.
These would have to be much more compelling and believable than Read my lips. Conservatives have been down this road before. Romneys pledges would need to be concrete specific actionable and credible.
What might they be?
Frankly they ought to be simply more specific and categorical commitments on already familiar Romney campaign themes. Obamacare will go. Period. No ifs ands or buts. Both deficits and debt
will be reduced dramatically and through real cuts in programs not smoke and mirrors accounting gimmicks. Simplify the tax code radically in ways that could increase net revenues by closing loopholes but without raising rates.
These are things conservatives care deeply about and that either appeal to or dont alienate independents.
If Romney nailed his flag to the mast on a handful of pledges like these to conservative Republicans and if Republican voters began thinking more about winning by winning
independents than about their emotional reaction to their nominee a shotgun wedding of Romney and the Republican electorate could produce a very fulfilling result in November.
Ambassador Philip Hughes is Senior Director of the White House Writers Group.
