The Boston Globe has gotten a copy of Mitt Romney’s campaign strategy.
Here are some views of Mitt Romney causing concern inside his campaign: His hair looks too perfect, he’s not a tough war time leader, and he has earned a reputation as “Slick Dancing Mitt” or “Flip-Flop Mitt.”
Romney and his advisers have identified those perceptions as threats to his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, according to an exhaustive internal campaign document obtained by the Globe.
The 77-slide PowerPoint presentation offers a revealing look at Romney’s pursuit of the White House, outlining a plan for branding himself, framing his competitors, and allaying voter concerns about his record, his Mormon faith, and his shifts on key issues like abortion.
Dated Dec. 11, the blueprint is wide-ranging and analyzes in detail the strengths and weaknesses of Romney and his two main Republican rivals, Senator John McCain of Arizona and Rudolph W. Giuliani, former mayor of New York. The plan, which top Romney strategist Alex Castellanos helped to draft, charts a course for Romney to emerge as the nominee, but acknowledges that the “electorate is not where it needs to be for us to succeed.”
One wonders why campaigns are suddenly so careless with their campaign documents. This is at least the third one of these things to emerge in the press so far and we’re almost two years out from the 2008 election. While not quite Edwardesque in its recklessness, it’s pretty close.
Moreover, it seems to me that Romney’s main problem is not his lovely hair (“Don’t vote against me because I’m beautiful!”) or his dancing skills. After all, John Kerry was widely perceived as a flip-flopper and John Edwards had very nice hair and they came within a few thousand votes in Ohio of winning the White House.
No, the campaign’s real problem is that they need a 77-slide PowerPoint presentation to outline their strategy for getting elected. If they had had PowerPoint in 1980, Ronald Reagan’s campaign would have needed 5 slides, max. Whether it’s a campaign strategy, a business plan, or a military ops brief, the 11th slide in your PowerPoint brief is a glaring signal you don’t really understand what you’re trying to get across to your audience.
