After last week’s GOP debate I was pretty furious with Governor Mitt Romney over his demagoguery of Social Security at Rick Perry’s expense. But after some time to cool down (a little) and a few days to see how this approach has played out, I’m starting to think Romney might be the candidate I’ve been waiting for. Not based on his record (I’m still VERY undecided), but based on what I believe is priority number one for our GOP nominee.
You’ve heard me say this before and throughout the upcoming election season you will hear me say it again and again and again: Defeating Barack Obama is not a problem. In every respect, he’s a failed president and there’s no way he can run on his dismal record and there’s no way he alone can toxify his opponent into something unelectable. But the media can, and that’s exactly what they have planned for us. And because I’m so sure of this, one of the priority qualities I’m looking for in our nominee is that they fully comprehend that the media is their most threatening political enemy and that they have a plan in place to neutralize them.
After their resounding defeat last week in New York and Nevada they might now be retooling, but it was pretty obvious beforehand that the Left’s 2012 game plan was to haul out that great big boogeyman known as Mediscare. And judging from his positioning in last week’s debate, Romney appears to have read those tea leaves and found a way to inoculate himself.
By assuming the position of The Mighty Social Security Defender through the ruthless beating of Rick Perry, Romney made it awfully difficult for Obama and his MSM allies to paint him as someone eager to dismantle this, yes, immoral Ponzi scheme. That was a pretty shrewd outmaneuvering of the Left on the Governor’s part and my anger at him was lessened somewhat as I imagined Democrats and the offices of Politico and the New York Times deflate just a bit as they realized a GOP front-runner might have just become bullet-proof on this particular issue.
Moreover, Romney used the media to help him catch up to Perry in the polls. By making Social Security THE issue of the night, the media went nuts on Perry, made him look less electable, and drove his numbers down. Although, it didn’t help that Perry himself wasn’t able to put the issue to bed — which brings me to another point.
Thus far, Perry is still unable to put the Social Security and Gardasil issues to rest and Michele Bachmann is still dealing with her ill-advised post-debate comments. Romney, on the other hand, has done a pretty good of moving the debate away from RomneyCare, his faith, and other areas that, fairly or not, have threatened to derail him. Quickly killing media narratives is a necessary skill for whoever ends up going toe to toe with Obama and his MSM allies.
Whether you like Romney or not (some policies disagreements aside, I think he’s a genuinely decent man), what he’s displaying is the necessary media savvy to end a nightmare that began with Obama’s inauguration. This doesn’t mean the other candidates don’t have this skill or can’t acquire it, but for my money it’s pointless to vote for anyone who hasn’t proven they can beat the media at their own game.
If our candidate can’t defeat the media, Barack Obama wins.
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