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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Criticial for Romney to polish image in tonight's speech

By: Carl P. Leubsdorf

Posted: 08/30/2012 12:20 PM | Comments: 0

Ann Romney provided a glowing dose of positive reinforcement about her husband Mitt during her speech to the convention. (OLIVIER DOULIERY / MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE)

TAMPA, Fla. — This week’s Republican National Convention was designed to counter the months-long Democratic campaign to define Mitt Romney as a rich, uncaring billionaire and present him as a devoted family man whose business experience will rescue the country from its economic doldrums.

"This week is about telling the Mitt Romney story," party chairman Reince Priebus proclaimed in advance.

But that goal seemed lost the first two days as most speakers concentrated on deriding President Obama’s record, mocking words they claimed reflected disdain for small businesses and blaming him for running up the national debt while failing to revive the economy.

Fortunately for Romney, his wife, Ann, provided a glowing dose of positive reinforcement on Tuesday night, holding rapt the 20,000 Republicans who packed the Tampa Bay Times Forum — and his campaign hoped the millions watching on television — with the loving details of 47 years with "this boy I met at a highschool dance.

"His name is Mitt Romney and you really should get to know him," she declared. "This man will not fail. This man will not let us down. He will take us to a better place just as he took me home safely from that dance. Give him that chance."

The harsh anti-Obama tone quickly returned in a hectoring, self-congratulatory keynote speech by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. But Mrs. Romney set the stage for Romney himself to fill in the missing personal and substantive details in tonight’s acceptance speech, one of his two greatest opportunities — along with October’s debates — to persuade a still skeptical electorate.

Indeed, says a Temple University political scientist who studied the impact of key campaign events, the conventions proved decisive in 14 of the last 15 elections, with the winner evident within a week to 10 days afterward. (The exception: Ronald Reagan’s late-breaking 1980 victory.)

"In a year like this, a two- to three-point shift could solidify things for Obama or give Romney an edge," said Christopher Wleziel, stressing the nominee’s acceptance speech. "What Romney says in that speech and what he does that night, that’s probably going to most matter to people."

His speech is designed to accomplish three main goals:

Give America a better sense of his human side. His discussion of doing the laundry and shopping at Costco in a Fox News Sunday interview was a start in presenting him as a warm family man.
Give undecided voters a better sense of how he’d govern and improve the economy. He needs to go beyond the same old Republican nostrums about tax-cutting our way to prosperity and increasing defense spending, making vague promises to balance the budget without showing how.
Reach out to more moderate centrist voters made wary by his lengthy, concerted effort to woo the conservative GOP base.

"Voters need to see a multidimensional human being who instinctively feels their pain and understands the deep fear a broken economy brings to the vulnerable," veteran GOP operative Mike Murphy wrote in Time magazine. "Romney’s speech must go beyond mere biography and paint a vivid picture of where he wants to lead the country."

Recent polls show voters see him less favorably than Obama and less in the political mainstream, and he trails badly on some important traits.

In the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Obama led by over 20 points on caring about average people and being likeable and over 10 on issues of concern to seniors, specifically Medicare. (Later polls showed Romney doing better on Medicare.)

By contrast, Romney led by single digits on having good ideas to improve the economy and changing business as usual in Washington. A CNN/Opinion Research poll showed him with a small lead on managing the government and having a plan to solve the nation’s problems.

Whatever Romney’s successes here, his image faces a renewed battering when the Democrats convene next week in Charlotte, N.C. Only afterwards will it be evident if Romney has burnished his image and improved his prospects.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News.

— The Dallas Morning News

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