Amelia
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McGurn: The 'Likable' Barack Obama - WSJ.com
Excellent article. Good points. We aren't going to make people who like Obama as a person stop liking him. We have to get beyond our sense of puzzlement that some enjoy his speeches. This will win a lot more votes than trying to make people who find Obama charming suddenly stop liking him: "My opponent is a good and decent man but ..."
In 1980, Ronald Reagan zeroed in on the incompetence of Jimmy Carter, a good and decent man. That should be Mitt Romney's strategy in 2012.
How likable is Barack Obama?
Very likable, it seems, at least in contrast to his GOP rival. According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released a few days ago, Americans by a more than 2-to-1 ratio say the president is more "friendly and likable" than Mitt Romney.
Many Republicans, and especially conservatives, can find these numbers hard to credit. Some note that the poll sampling favors Democrats and thus artificially inflates the president's numbers. Still others have come to dislike President Obama so much that it makes them suspicious when they read numbers indicating they are in the minority.
The focus on likability is a mistake. It's a mistake, first, for Democrats if they believe likability will be enough for Mr. Obama to win re-election come November. It's even more of a mistake for those Republicans who believe that the only way to defeat the president is to get fellow Americans to dislike him as much as they do.
At its core, the confusion over likability has to do with an inability to see the world as the other side sees it.
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Resurgent Republic, a conservative-leaning public research firm, found the same likability at work in recent focus groups of independents who had voted for Mr. Obama in 2008. The good news for Mr. Obama is that "these Obama Independents still like the president."
The bad news for him is that "[w]hen asked what they like most about the president, participants refer almost solely to personal traits like his character and speaking skills. At best, they credit President Obama for trying."
That helps explain why the same poll that showed the president more likable than Mr. Romney went on to report that a majority nonetheless thought the former Massachusetts governor would do a better job with the economy.
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Mr. Romney already has the votes of those who dislike Mr. Obama. The votes he needs are there for the asking: folks who like Mr. Obama but have serious doubts about his leadership as president.
Excellent article. Good points. We aren't going to make people who like Obama as a person stop liking him. We have to get beyond our sense of puzzlement that some enjoy his speeches. This will win a lot more votes than trying to make people who find Obama charming suddenly stop liking him: "My opponent is a good and decent man but ..."