Romney's Victory Speech In Illinois

I think Laura Ingraham remarked this was his best speech yet.

For some time I've intended to note that Romney has to speak thematically more. He has to connect policy ideas to grander, deeper themes.

He does a bit of that here.

My other suggestion (which he doesn't do) is that he he has to improve tonally. Look, conservatives are angry. They want to see a candidate show some of that anger. Not just to validate their own emotional state, but also to convince them that the candidate "gets it" where it counts, in the gut.

I know Romney does not want to appear angry and believes, with a fair amount of history to back him, that Angry Candidates do not win, and Happy Warriors do.

That's true, but there is a usefulness to anger.

I have suggested, and I will re-suggest, that Romney give a speech in which he treats the nation, and Obama, as if it is a failing company (and its parvenu CEO) he's been hired to right as a consultant.

Examine each and every failure and channel some emotion over the waste of capital and the waste of precious human resources. And keep saying, "This is unacceptable!," or a similar word. Something with some bite.

I know Romney does not believe in displays of emotion but let me suggest to him his business career should have taught him: The customers are always right. And, in this case, I think they're on to something.

You cannot ask a country to boot out the current occupant of the Oval Office if his performance is merely worth some tut-tutting and laugh lines. To justify such a large change, the CEO of America, Inc. has to be guilty of real incompetence and malfeasance.

And incompetence and malfeasance are worth getting hot about.

It really would help, not hurt, Romney if he backed his intellectual level claims with emotional level conviction. If Obama really has failed so badly the country needs a course correction -- how come we don't hear that in your voice?

His actual speech is decent. Needs work. He needs to improve if he's going to really win the primary, as opposed to gimping over the finish line, spent. And he'll need to improve to defeat a sitting president.

posted by Ace at 02:40 PM

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