The electorate is disillusioned and convinced we are on the “wrong track.” The “Hope and Change” posters are fading along with the employment prospects of new graduates. In unison, all Republicans can chant a litany of dour outcomes such as declining home values, rising gasoline prices, flat incomes, drought in the plains, fire in the Rockies, mosquitoes in Texas, demise of the Boston Red Sox, and Jennifer Lopez leaving America Idol. And they all agree on one thing – its all Barack Obama’s fault!
By all that is just Romney and his fellow one- percenters should be sitting around lush lobbies figuring out how they can divvy up the spoils of fresh tax cuts and millions in profits from relief from regulators – the ones that keep bugging them about clean air, a safe workplace, fair wages, tax dodges, affordable healthcare, and other such nonsense. But a funny thing happened on the way to the party – instead of being up 10 points in the polls, Romney and Ryan are down by five points in Virginia and six points nationally. Now why might that be?
It happens that one of the statistics the right will never point to is “likability.” The electorate just does not like Mitt Romney and his equally charming sidekick Paul Ryan. In Mitt Romney they see the emotionless boss they never liked and with Paul Ryan they see the kid in high school that always buttered up the teacher and pressed his jeans. In Barack Obama they see a leader – not a manager. He inspires rather than scolds, he listens rather tells, and most of all he solves problems rather than complaining about them. It seems people still want hope and change they can believe in.
