NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE’S “THE CORNER”
The Change Candidate [Byron York]
I got an email today from the Romney campaign highlighting an AP article headlined “Romney Grabs ‘Change’ Theme As He Tries to Rebound Against McCain in New Hampshire Primary.” The campaign added that Romney’s “message of bringing real change to Washington is reaching New Hampshire voters.”
Is it just me, or does this seem a bit transparent? It’s not as if Romney has never talked about changing things in Washington before, but you get the impression that the biggest change he has brought about recently is the one he made in his campaign pitch on the flight from Iowa to New Hampshire. Did the voters say they want change? Sure, I’ll give ‘em change.
Romney will be in debates tonight and tomorrow with a number of clever, determined opponents. Should the man who has had to fight off charges that he is a flip-flopper, who said many times that he would preserve and protect a women’s right to choose and that he most definitely was not a follower of Ronald Reagan, now portray himself as the agent of change? And then there’s the fact that not all that long ago – 2002 – Romney said that his main opponent in New Hampshire, John McCain, “has always stood for reform and change.” Don’t the zingers write themselves? We’ll see tonight.
01/05 01:49 PM
All the lightweights are jumping on the “Change” bandwagon.
How about some substance instead of “change”?
Apparently the geniuses at NR couldn’t see this coming when they endorsed Romney.
I guess Byron missed the article yesterday that pointed out that while Romney’s platform IS about change, the way he’s been presenting it didn’t exude that message of change — and that in order to communicate that more effectively, Romney really needed to start saying it.
So it seems that, if Romney is now saying it, it’s because the Iowa result showed that the message needed to be spoken more clearly.
It’s never “transparent” to see where your campaign isn’t communicating effectively, and try to fix it.
That’s like saying it’s “transparent” that Fred realised he could win in Iowa so he suddenly showed up with a bus and a tour. :-)