Romney campaign faces messaging dilemma…

How does a presidential campaign stay on message when its candidate is a moderate conservative and there is no longer a governing center in your party? The answer is it doesn’t. Thus far, the election campaign of presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney has morphed into whatever appears to be politically expedient at any given time and place. When Governor Romney campaigns in Florida he sounds like a Marco Rubio Republican, courting undecided Latino voters with inclusive rhetoric; but, when stumping in a state like Arizona, he speaks with in the same divisive language as Sheriff Joe Arpaio and anti-hispanic members of the Freedom Works Tea Party. Simply put, there is no consistency or uniform vision in the Romney campaign’s messaging from day to day, and the expanding list of chameleon-like changes by the campaign on many of the key policy positions of the 2012 election continues to the dismay of GOP loyalists. “Believe in America” simply doesn’t cut it as a slogan for Romney, it’s no different than “Country First”, and it can only be interpreted by those who are not die hard Republicans as a disingenuous and arrogant move to insinuate from your campaign slogan that over half of the American electorate does not believe in the present and future prosperity of their own country. But the question presented here is what exactly does Romney believe in?

The so-called “Etch A Sketch” candidate has thus far lived up to the nickname given to him by his Republican foes in reaction to statements by Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom on CNN during the GOP primaries, where he eloquently stated while discussing the transition to the general election: “I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch,”… “You can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again.” With the latest addition of contradicting statements within the Romney campaign, pertaining to the individual mandate tax or penalty discussion, the flip flopping has now become so obvious and expected of the candidate and his staff that serious questions must be asked by conservative American voters regarding what version of Romney is the real thing and which version is simply pandering for votes at the expense of his personal beliefs and principals. This most recent intra-campaign confusion seems to justify concerns over Romney’s ability to effectively message on health care reform and validate former candidate Rick Santorum who famously predicted that Romney would be the “worst Republican to run on the issue of Obamacare.”

Now that it has become obvious that Governor Romney’s campaign staff is often not properly briefed or clear on his current position on numerous major issues, expect grave concern and calls for firings from Republican sympathizers and donors who have poured millions into Romney’s campaign war chest and outside groups. The delayed and inconsistent reactions by the campaign to the health care ruling and the recent immigration policy change declared by President Obama (Romney would not answer direct questions) are distinctive indicators of a campaign that lacks discipline and clarity at its roots. Simply put, no campaign can succeed without consistent messaging on the biggest issues that will swing voters and effect turnout, and the Romney campaign is obviously not on the same page given its recent blunders (which also include a slew of embarrassing typos and visible indecision from spokespersons when facing non-Fox News reporters).

The GOP and conservative independents must live with the fact that they have a nominee in Mitt Romney who vigorously defended the individual health care mandate as Governor of a blue state; indeed Romney has been captured on video stating his desire to test the Massachusetts plan at the national level and touting the mandate as a “personal responsibility” provision. This same man as a GOP candidate for President of the United States has now said that he would act to repeal what is essentially his own vision for healthcare reform in the name of winning over anti-Obama right-wingers. He wants greatly to appeal to independents while not alienating far right Fox News Republicans. But this has become nearly impossible because it is a fact that the moderates in his party are a dying breed. The result is that Romney has ultimately been forced to compromise his truly moderate conservative principles (based on his record as Governor of Massachusetts) in the name of winning an election. Unfortunately for Governor Romney, because of his own actions and the actions of his staff, he is now clearly vulnerable to the same kind of flip flopping claims that capsized John Kerry’s bid for the White House in 2004.

Thoughts on the Latino vote and President Obama’s speech to NALEO…

Lake Buena Vista, Florida - Following sharp criticism of his commitment to the Latino community suggested during speeches by presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney and Senator Marco Rubio, President Barack Obama responded in kind by offering a clear contrast to his Republican adversaries during a key election year address to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (“NALEO”). Speaking only a few hours after Rubio, who had told the conference that the President “has not made Latino issues a priority” and offered as proof the fact that the President “hasn’t been to the NALEO conference in the three years since he took office”, Obama seemed unfazed by Rubio’s criticism and instead focused his energy on connecting with the audience and contrasting himself with Romney early and often.

The President began his speech by discussing the vital role of “Dreamers” in helping to fuel the economic engine of America and discussed how immigrants have always been “risk takers, not looking for handouts and some of the hardest working people around.” He then asked the crowd about the kind of vision the Latino community was looking for in their President, specifically asking “what vision do we stand for, who do we fight for?” in reference to Romney’s policies which the President claims would favor the rich and result in a return to “trickle down” economics. He further contrasted his vision from Romney’s by discussing his focus on expanding education opportunities through expanded Pell grants, encouraging community colleges as a bridge to a higher education, and not teaching to a test and instead focusing on expanding curriculums instead of slashing funding like the GOP in Congress and Romney have favored doing by gutting the Department of Education.

The crowd of officials seemed receptive to the President’s message on education, and that didn’t change when the President shifted to discussing his record in what appeared to be a direct response to Romney’s claim the day before that “President Obama doesn’t respect the Latino vote.” He began by mentioning that his administration has already cut taxes 18 times for Latino small business owners and for Latino middle class taxpayers, he discussed the impact of health care reform on the Latino community, the fact that under the Affordable Care , Act Americans will no longer go broke because they are sick. He highlighted the fact that Latino’s have the highest uninsured rate and that it was the “right thing to do passing health care reform.” Finally, he qualified the progress made thus far with the fact that there is more to do, that we need to put more good teachers in our class rooms, need to put people back to work restoring our infrastructure.

Next, the President addressed the need for Congress to take on comprehensive Immigration “in order to continue attracting talented hard working people who believe in this country.” He mentioned that the delay in action on immigration has not been a lack of technical knowhow on how to fix the system, and he used the work put in to the issue by McCain, Bush, and Ted Kennedy, showing there was bi-partisan support at a point in time not long ago. He then blamed the stale mate on obstruction caused by Tea Party faction of the Republican Party in Congress. In stark contrast to Romney who said he would veto the DREAM Act, The President also argued that Congress should have passed the Dream ACT because it was a bill written by both parties. He drove home the point by pointing out that the Republicans who helped write the bill blocked it in the end, and that “the need didn’t change, the bill didn’t change, the only thing that had changed was politics.” He then went on to justify his administrations action stating that “lifting the shadow of deportation and giving these children an opportunity” was the right thing to do. He called it a temporary measure, and reiterated that Congress needs to act and send a bill to his desk ASAP.

Finally, the President closed his speech to NALEO by discussing larger election year themes with a 2008 feel, discussing with passion the need for unity as a country to fully recover from the financial collapse, and mentioning that “an enduring promise of America” is what drives immigrants to America. He mentioned how his story would not have been possible in any other country, and he drew an us versus them type distinction between his vision and the Romney vision when he wrapped up stating that the march toward freedom and equality has always been tough, and that people have tried to stop the progress of minorities over time, but that in the end persevered with the familiar theme from Obama’s historic run to the White House, ending with a resounding “yes we can, si se puede” and a huge applause from the conference crowd that was nearly twice as loud as that of Mitt Romney the day before.

Thoughts on changes to U.S. immigration policy and whether Romney would repeal President Obama’s Executive Order…

Five days removed from President Obama’s announcement of an Executive Order changing the immigration policy of the United States, GOP Nominee Mitt Romney has yet to directly answer yes or no to media questions pertaining to whether he would repeal the Order if he is elected. As things stand, if Congress doesn’t act in the next month to block the Order, then the children of illegal immigrants under the age of 30 and brought to the country before they were 16 will become eligible to request temporary relief from deportation proceedings and will be allowed to apply for a two year work permit. To be eligible for relief, the individual must have lived in the U.S. for five continuous years, have no criminal record and have earned a high school diploma, a GED or have served in the military. Thus, because of the wide effect and the urgency to act created by this policy change, it’s of vital importance to millions of young immigrants living in the shadows to know whether a President Romney would be in favor of allowing those qualified under Obama’s order to remain in the U.S.

The biggest political problem created for Romney by Obama’s move is that answering either way will cost him critical votes with Latinos, independents, or with anti-immigrant Tea Party Republicans. Thus, the politics behind his current silence are clear; he is doing whatever he can to avoid taking a position in order to avoid alienating key constituencies. In fact, a recent poll on Obama’s move conducted by Bloomberg this week showed 86% support from Democrats, 66% from Independents, and only 44% support among Republicans. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the Romney Campaign is aware of the political consequences associated with advising their candidate on whether to speak or not speak on this Order. What is not clear is why Romney and his surrogates are accusing Obama of playing politics with immigration policy when Romney’s own refusal to answer direct questions is obviously a politically motivated campaign tactic.

To further complicate matters for undecided voters, it also appears from the text on Romney’s campaign website that he has already taken a position in favor of retaining immigrant talent. For example, under the heading of “Attract the Best and Brightest”, the Romney campaign’s website states that the “the U.S. needs to attract and retain job creators from wherever they come. Foreign-born residents with advanced degrees start companies, create jobs, and drive innovation at an especially high rate.” But this position, without the qualification that it only applies to legal immigrants, is much too liberal a stance for a majority of the Republican base including Tea Partiers. Thus, Romney’s own inconsistency on immigration issues are why he finds himself stuck between supporting the Order and risking losing his already shaky conservative base, or rejecting the Order, threatening to repeal, and risking losing vital support from undecided independent voters and Rubio Republicans.

Considering the above issues and the fact that Marco Rubio recently withdrew his Dream Act legislation from the Senate, an honest analysis of the cost/benefit to the GOP of Romney’s responding directly to Obama’s Order leads to the reasonable conclusion that Mitt Romney will continue to deflect direct questions pertaining to the Executive Order or the Dream Act. Romney, as most are aware by now, is a master political chameleon who typically plays it safe on controversial issues while taking whatever position is popular at the place, time and with the audience he is speaking to. Because Romney is scared to offend fair weather conservative voters by back treading on the rhetoric he spouted during the primary season, we should expect him and his campaign to continue to talk tough about deportations and the problems with illegal immigrants when in front of Tea Party crowds, and similarly, because he is scared to offend undecided conservative Latino voters, we can also expect Romney the chameleon to sound a lot like his possible running mate Marco Rubio when he visits Florida. Just don’t expect Mitt Romney to give the American people a direct yes or no answer any time soon.