Communication is key to Romney’s campaign

With just under two months left until the presidential election, candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are battling for every vote, each trying to find the critical message that will sway the independent voter his way.

The reality is that political campaigns are not always about who has the best plan, but who has the best message. The party that is able to effectively communicate its goals to the American people is the party that is going to win.

“While much rhetoric in the public domain is rightly characterized as ‘cheap talk,’ a party’s messages (and those of the opposing party) do have tremendous potential to affect public opinion,” Tim Groeling and Matthew Baum of the online journal Political Behavior said.

Romney — Creating a unique identity for himself will be critical for Romney. Photo credit: Joeff Davis

This ability to deliver a specific and controlled message was key to Obama’s victory in 2008. Whether you supported them or not, Obama and his campaign strategist realized that fact and accomplished their mission well.

“In their tactical view, all that was wrong with the United States could be summarized in one word: ‘Bush,’” Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker said. “The clear alternative, then, was not so much a Democrat or a liberal as it was anyone who could credibly define himself as ‘not Bush.’”

Another part of Obama’s core message was healthcare.

“I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country,” Obama said, as quoted by a USA Today article in 2007.

Case in point. Obama was able to easily win his election because he clearly defined himself and his goals.

The results reversed two year later with the Republicans controlling the main essence of the election. In 2010, they won back the House of Representatives through a clear message of limited government and fiscal responsibility.

“The 2010 election cycle will be most remembered for the birth and rapid rise of the low-tax, limited-government tea party movement, which has energized frustrated conservatives nationwide heading into the Nov. 2 midterms, mostly to the Republican Party’s benefit,” Linda Feldmann of the Christian Science Monitor said.
However, in the last two years, Republicans have had a harder time defining themselves. A recent article from Time Magazine describes Republicans as “the party of no.”

“They’ve defined themselves politically by their opposition to Obama,” Time Magazine political analysts Michael Grunwald and Walter Alarkon said in a September article.

For better or worse, Republicans have been defined as the party of “anti” — anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-science, anti-healthcare. While it is good for them to oppose policies, such opposition is viewed as harmful. It is not enough simply to be “the party of no.”

There is nothing wrong with explaining why Democrats have not done a good job running America, but Romney’s message needs to have more substance than that.

It is not as though Romney does not have a plan. His campaign website, Romney.com, provides an 87-page plan detailing his strategy to revive the economy.

But just having a plan is not good enough, because unless Romney is able to effectively communicate his plan to the American people, he will never get the chance to enact it.

If Romney and Ryan are going to beat Obama in November, their campaign needs to have a positive, clear and specific message that it can push forward.

He needs to define this election.

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