A number of the latest polls have President Barack Obama expanding his lead over Mitt Romney, suggesting Romney’s presidential campaign is in need of a course correction.
On Monday’s broadcast of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough said the Romney campaign shouldn’t take the news lightly. Scarborough suggested Romney should start aggressively offering specifics.
“I mean, Mitt Romney is in trouble. You said what I felt on Saturday night, after reading this Politico article and a lot of other articles — that this is a moment where you can look back and say, ‘Alright, you know what? They had to change paths at this point, or else they couldn’t have won.’ And I think we are there. After the conventions on Labor Day, after Labor Day, they have to start being aggressive, and they have to start being specific, and they have to start telling Americans where they’re going to take this country. They’re going to have to jolt people with facts.”
Scarborough referenced the 1975 campaign of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the 1976 campaign of former President Ronald Reagan, where both offered specifics during their successful campaigns.
“The Romney people think that they can run a Bob Dole campaign, a John McCain campaign, a Gerald Ford campaign and win,” he continued. “That doesn’t happen. Republicans do not win by running these types of campaigns. And for those idiots out there saying that I’m a RINO or I’m not a conservative because I’m actually telling them we will lose if you don’t start running as a conservative: If you don’t start telling people what you believe — if you really do, in fact, believe in anything, and if you don’t start telling people, ‘Yes, these are the tax exemptions we’re going to take care of. Yes, this is how seniors who are going to be turning, you know, 65 in 15 years, this is how they’re going to be paying more. This is how we’re going to have to trim benefits. This is how we’re going to have to trim benefits on Social Security. These are the wars we can no longer fight. These are the weapons systems we can no longer afford.’”
Scarborough concluded, “Unless you have somebody that’s willing to do that, Romney’s going to lose.”