One Good Speech Does Not A President Make

In my last post I pointed out the above average effort delivered last week by former Governor Mitt Romney. In a speech he called "A Better America Begins Tonight". It was a departure from the usual discomfort you get from a Romney speech. However, after the dust settles the fact is he can say what he thinks people want to hear, but he can't run from his record, or that of the political party he stands to represent.

He and his friends on the Right would have you believe there is no assault on women and women's health, but the over 1000 pieces of legislation put forward by Republicans on the state and federal level speaks for itself. They can call it fabricated, a distraction from the real issues, a way to divide America, but that doesn't change the facts. If you follow me, you know what they are, if not, check my previous blogs about women's issues. They say the election is about jobs and the economy. Ok, lets run with that, Romney consistently says the stimulus was a failure, and the current recovery to slow. This was answered brilliantly this morning by White House campaign aide Robert Gibbs on NBC's Meet The Press, when he observed the Romney campaign is basically complaining that President Obama didn't clean up George W. Bush's mess fast enough.

There are so many obstacles Romney has to overcome. So even if his new message resonates with some people, the facts weigh like an anchor around his neck.  He has double digit shortfalls with women, young people, independents, and Latinos. Yet, you will see a lot of polls out there that say this contest is a dead heat. Well they said the same thing in 2008 and President Obama won with 364 electoral votes, over double what John McCain received. In the popular vote he won with 53%, which in today's electorate is big.

The major difference is Obama's appeal in the big money states, places where Mitt Romney is struggling. Remember the political pundits want to keep you on the edge of your seat, tuning in tomorrow for the latest poll numbers, and yes the popular vote is probably going to be decided by 2 or 3 percentage points. Regardless, the election is going to be settled by that handful of swing states, and Romney is weak in most if not all of them. His own party leaders endorse him like some kind of political leper. "He won the process", or "he is the peoples choice", how's that for high praise. There are even some people like former Governor Rick Perry who says he wants to run for President again in 2016, which presumes Romney doesn't have a prayer in 2012, way to rally the troops Rick!

What it boils down to is this. In a recent poll of Republican voters 2 people were voting against Obama vs, the 1 that were voting for Romney. This speaks volumes about their presumptive nominee. If the man can't connect with his own political party, how is he going to connect with the American people? That my friends is his biggest hurdle of all, and right now he doesn't have a poll long enough to get over it.