{mosads}Stressing this theme in ads has the additional advantage of assuring moderate Democrats and independents that Romney would not be manipulated by the ever feared extreme Republican right. It would remind them that he did pass positive, constructive legislation on healthcare and education by working with the Democratic Legislature. This will give great comfort to swing voters.
The Romney campaign should follow its candidate’s initiative and begin to stress this bipartisan theme in its advertising. By doing so, it will make it harder for Obama to sustain his negative campaign. He will be seen as the divisive one, and Romney as the healer.
The Romney campaign should also do ads that revert to the basic theme of more government versus less. All voters — Democrats and Republicans — agree that:
• Obama has raised spending and borrowing;
• If Obama is reelected, government will grow and so will spending and borrowing;
• Romney would probably grow it less or maybe even spend less and shrink it.
Everybody agrees on these points. They disagree about the wisdom of each course of action. But the American voter agrees with the Republicans and Romney much more than he sides with the Democrats and Obama on these questions.
And these are the key questions over which our politics has been divided for the past four years. By impartially articulating these differences, Romney can make the election about big things, like the size of government spending and borrowing.
These two initiatives —
(a) Bipartisanship
(b) More government vs. less
— should dominate the next few weeks of Romney advertising.
Morris, a former adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Clinton, is the author of Outrage, Fleeced, Catastrophe and 2010: Take Back America — A Battle Plan. To get all of his and Eileen McGann’s columns for free by email or to order a signed copy of their latest book, Revolt!: How To Defeat Obama and Repeal His Socialist Programs — A Patriot’s Guide, go to dickmorris.com.