Mitt Romney's childish and insincere 'nice guy, but' campaign strategy

[ProSense]

Mitt Romney's childish and insincere 'nice guy, but' campaign strategy

by Jed Lewison

Mitt Romney yesterday:

Even if you like Barack Obama, we can’t afford Barack Obama

This is a slightly different formulation of an ongoing Romney refrain. In March, he said:

He's a nice guy, but he's in over his head. We need to have a president who understands the economy if we're going to fix the economy.

In January:

We're now on track to retire a guy who's a nice guy but is in over his head.

There's no question that Mitt Romney's "nice guy/but in over his head" formulation is condescending and childish, but conservative James Taranto thinks it's a stroke of political genius:

One advantage an incumbent president has when seeking re-election is that he has already persuaded many voters to cast a ballot for him. That means a challenger--or the incumbent himself, by doing a lousy job--has to convince a substantial number to change their minds. Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum will not become president this November without the support of millions who voted for Barack Obama in 2008. [...] It will be easier for them to change their minds if they believe they overestimated Obama's competence rather than that they supported somebody who posed a "foundational" threat to America.

In Taranto's view, Romney's rhetorical frame is the appropriate way to accomplish that goal:

"He's a nice guy, but . . ." is exquisitely condescending. It's probably not true: Obama strikes us as a petulant narcissist. But calling someone a "nice guy" is rarely a genuine compliment, and it never is when conjoined by "but." As any man who has ever been rejected by a woman knows, describing someone as "a nice guy, but . . ." is another way of saying he's ineffectual. That is exactly the point Romney is making about Obama.

Actually, the phrase "nice guy, but" is anything but exquisite, and using it certainly doesn't reflect a genius political strategy. It's one of the most common (and trite) phrases on the planet, and it's hard to see how using it will win Mitt Romney a single vote. It's probably better than calling President Obama an asshole, but that's hardly a powerful argument in its favor.

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/19/1084718/-Mitt-Romney-s-childish-and-insincere-nice-guy-but-campaign-strategy

Yeah, bringing back the "in over his head" claim is "genius."

Typical RW assholes.

[Vincardog]

1. Mitt is an asshole who got rich stealing American Jobs and retirements. He wants a shot at doing

the same to the whole country! LMAO
The strongest criticism is has of BO is "He is a nice guy"? What happened to gwb winning because you wanted to have a beer with him? Has that become vote for Mittens because you want to slap his pompous a$$?

[liberal N proud]

2. It is the type of character assassination you would expect from a twelve year old.

[ProSense]

3. It's lame, isn't it? n/t