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Bipartisanship: A new winning issue
I was surprised when Frank Luntz’s focus group showed that the best line of Wednesday evening’s debate by either candidate was Gov. Romney’s rendition of how he worked with Democrats in Massachusetts and will do so as president. But it makes a great deal of sense that this line would resonate.
While we professionals are trying to win the war of Dems vs. Reps, blue vs. red, the voters just want the war to end and the parties to come to an agreement, guided by the verdict they will deliver on Election Day. Ending this toxic division has been a key national goal of American voters ever since the Clinton impeachment, the government shutdown and the debt-limit fight. Indeed, the core of Clinton’s current popularity is that he did bridge the gap and pass bipartisan legislation to balance the budget and reform welfare.
Obama’s appeal was largely based on his promise to heal these divisions. But it is self-evident that they have gotten worse during his term. Any promise now to heal the breach would be seen as fraudulent.
But Romney’s record in Massachusetts offers some hope that he might succeed where Obama has failed.
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.
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