Romney has ‘trust’ problem

Columns

October 2, 2012

Romney has ‘trust’ problem

By Cokie and Steven V. Roberts/Syndicated columnist The Picayune Item Picayune Item Tue Oct 02, 2012, 09:50 AM CDT

PICAYUNE — The most important word in American politics is trust. And that’s why Barack Obama is maintaining a slight lead over Mitt Romney, despite a sputtering economy and a gloomy electorate.

Trust cannot be altered easily by a speech or a commercial or a debate. Trust is deeply rooted in who a candidate really is — his personality, character, temperament.

While many voters are just now tuning into the election campaign, Romney has been running for president for five years. That’s plenty of time for Americans to develop a sense of his values and priorities. And when they measure Romney against the president, the Republican’s trust deficit is clear and considerable. When an ABC News/Washington Post poll asked voters “who would make a more loyal friend,” they chose the president by 50 percent to 36 percent.

Of course the race is much closer than that, with Obama leading by an average of only three points in national polls. But that’s because the economy is still so dreadful. In fact, Romney should be far ahead, which is why so many Republican operatives are so frustrated.

Talk show host Laura Ingraham spoke for many disenchanted GOP’ers when she said this should be a “gimme election” for the Republicans. “If you can’t beat Barack Obama with this record, then shut down the party,” she fulminated.

The hunt is already on for scapegoats. Republican pros complain that Stuart Stevens, Romney’s main message maven, responds too slowly to Democratic attacks. Hard-line conservatives have a different beef — that the candidate’s not pure or specific enough in outlining his proposals.

But Romney’s biggest problem is not his advisers or his policies. It is Romney himself. He is just not a very good candidate. He has trouble inspiring affection, confidence and, yes, trust. And that really matters.

We have covered politics since the ’60s, and we have some data to go on. When voters explain their choices, they seldom mention issues or positions. Instead they say, “I like him ... he understands me ... I think he’ll do the right thing.” In the ABC News/Washington Post survey, voters by 65 percent to 23 percent said it’s more important to trust a candidate than to agree with him.

Trust actually encompasses several dimensions, the first of which is friendliness. Yes, Obama can come across as frosty and detached, but Romney makes him look like Mr. Congeniality. By a margin of more than 2-to-1, voters consider the president “more personally likable” than his opponent.

The second dimension of trust is empathy, a sense of connectedness. Obama can tell stories about his life experiences that convey the message: “I get it; I know what you’re going through.” Romney has not lived that kind of life, and when he tries to relate to ordinary folks, he seems forced and phony. Does anyone really believe he’s a Snooki fan?

It’s not that Romney is rich — we’ve elected rich people before (see FDR, JFK and both Bushes). It’s that voters think Romney’s wealth isolates and insulates him from real-world problems. And his derisive comments, in a leaked video, about nontaxpayers “who believe that they are the victims” only reinforces that impression of detached elitism. When the CBS News/New York Times poll asked who “understands people like you,” 62 percent said the president; only 43 percent named his challenger.

A third element of trust is truth telling, and here’s where policy and personality can overlap. Many voters sense that when Romney says he can cut taxes and still balance the budget, he’s simply not leveling with them. By 49 percent to 42 percent, voters say Obama is playing straight and not trying to mislead them. Romney’s numbers on the same question are 43 percent positive, 48 percent negative.

Finally, there’s the question of judgment. During the campaign of 2000, terrorism was barely discussed, and yet seven months into George W. Bush’s first term, 9/11 defined and consumed his presidency. Voters understand the capriciousness of life and select someone they can trust to handle the unknown and unpredictable.

That’s why Romney’s comments after the tragedy in Libya did so much damage. He seemed panicky, not poised. Conservative commentator Peggy Noonan skewered his misstep: “I belong to the old school of thinking that in times of great drama and heightened crisis ... discretion is the better way to go.”

It’s way too early to concede the president a second term. But it’s not too early to say that Romney has a trust problem. And it’s hard to see how he can solve it.

(Steve and Cokie Roberts can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.)

Text Only

Columns

Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist

I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.”

March 29, 2013
Health care market needs oversight
By Gene Lyons/Syndicated columnist

Sometimes the best journalism explains what’s right under our noses. In Steven Brill’s exhaustive Time magazine cover article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” it’s the staggeringly expensive, grotesquely inefficient and inhumane way Americans pay for medical care.

March 29, 2013
VA’s appalling failures not recent
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist

While recent national press attention to ongoing problems at Mississippi’s G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Administration Medical Center in Jackson is welcome and needed, the failures of the overall VA service apparatus in Mississippi are not recent problems.
In short, former U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery — Mississippi’s “Mr. Veteran” and author of the modern G.I. Bill that bears his name — must be spinning in his grave. There have been significant failures and poor service to veterans documented by state and local media since 2008.

March 27, 2013
Dolley Madison politically savvy
By Cokie and Steven V. Roberts/Syndicated columnists

When Dolley Payne Madison became first lady in 1809, she instituted Wednesday evening gatherings at the White House where political rivals could meet and talk. They were called “squeezes” because so many people showed up and crowded the room. As Cokie wrote in her book “Ladies of Liberty": “All were welcome as long as they were appropriately dressed. And all went — skipping a Wednesday night might mean missing a vital piece of political information or being left out of a crucial deal.”

March 27, 2013
Mississippi isn’t immune from national college tuition trends
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
Higher education in Mississippi has not been immune from national trends cited in a recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report which concludes that over the last five years, the global economic downturn and a “no new taxes” political climate have increasingly shifted the burden of higher education finance to students and parents at a time when enrollment is increasing and the percentage of state support is decreasing.

March 23, 2013
Right to vote not ‘racial entitlement
By Donna Brazile/Syndicated columnist
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Shelby County v. Holder — a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, specifically Section 5, which requires states and localities with a history of voting discrimination against racial and language minorities to get “pre-approved” by the federal government before changing how elections are conducted or voters are registered.

March 23, 2013
1st day of spring brings memories
By Wyatt Emmerich/Southside Sun

The first day of spring! My favorite month, April, is just around the corner. Now we just need one big gullywasher to get rid of the pine pollen.
Normally, spring gives me a strong sense of rebirth and renewal, but this spring I seem surrounded by moments crystallizing the passage of time.
It was a year ago, I walked up the porch to my mother’s home to box up her possessions following her funeral.

March 22, 2013
Soaking up in tiger paw-shaped hot tub
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist

No springtime ritual was better at Auburn than sitting on hard rocks at a nearby state park to let cold water rush over your feet. You wore cut-off blue jeans and Dr. Scholl’s sandals, the unofficial uniform for coeds in the 1970s, and when you left, you felt ready to tackle tests, term papers and blind dates.

March 22, 2013
Medicaid or not, costs will be paid
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist

While the battle continues between state Republicans and other fiscal conservatives intent on focusing on the long-terms costs of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and Democrats, health care advocates and state hospitals intent on focusing on the short-term benefits, the fact remains that one way or another, the costs of providing health care for the poor, the blind, the aged and the disabled will be paid by the taxpayers one way or another.

March 20, 2013
Multiculturalism is not rational
By Thomas Sowell/Syndicated columnist

Among the many irrational ideas about racial and ethnic groups that have polarized societies over the centuries and around the world, few have been more irrational and counterproductive than the current dogmas of multiculturalism.
Intellectuals who imagine that they are helping racial or ethnic groups that lag behind by redefining their lags out of existence with multicultural rhetoric are in fact leading them into a blind alley.

March 20, 2013
More Columns Headlines

Columns

Search Results

Romney has ‘trust’ problem

Site Map

Contact Us