On Tuesday’s broadcast of Laura Ingraham’s radio program, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?” said GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney needs to reconsider his solely economic plan of attack on President Barack Obama.
This comes as polling averages give Obama an edge over Romney and trend in favor of his re-election.
“I think what the campaign has done, from what you’ve seen — from what we’ve both seen in the last couple of days — has sort of said, ‘This is our program. This is our game plan. We got to get the moderates. We have to move on the election. It’s got to be on the economic issue. Let’s not get distracted.’ I think given the numbers we’re seeing, they’re going to have to call an audible to show some flexibility and to be able to move.”
Buchanan recalled former President Ronald Reagan’s firing of air traffic controllers in 1981 as a bold gesture from which Romney and his campaign could learn.
“Now what did Ronald Reagan do?” Buchanan asked. “He didn’t ask for the air controllers strike. He said, ‘You fellows got 48 hours to get back on the job or you’re all gone.’ … They said [Leonid] Brezhnev and the Soviet Union all of a sudden stood up and took notice. They said, ‘Here’s a guy that’s cracked the only union that endorsed him and fired the whole lot of them?’ I mean, this is what the country really needs, with due respect, a certain smack of legitimate authority when things like this happen.”
But going forward, Buchanan suggested Romney should wait a few days to see if the post-Democratic National Convention bounce sticks before considering calling that “audible.”
“They ought to wait a couple of days to see what happens to this bounce. But if this bounce endures, and Obama is still up in seven of the eight top swing states, and his approval rating is, you know, at 50 percent and in the head-to-heads, he is up by five, or six, or seven or something — then you’re going to have to change plays,” Buchanan said.