Recommendations to the Presidential Candidates

It appears Mitt Romney has virtually won the GOP race for the
nomination. Therefore, it’s time to focus on the race between him and President
Obama for 2012. From now until November, I’ll occasionally write about
the candidates from a media perspective, so I’ll start here with a
couple of recommendations. This isn’t about ideology, it’s about
perception and how the candidates engage the media. Here’s one bit of
advice each could use:

Romney: Embrace who you are. You’re a successful
businessman who’s doing your best to hide from it. You look totally out
of place in those jeans, so just stop wearing them. This is a great case
of preaching one thing, and being another. You preach the gospel of
innovation, original thinking, taking a risk, rising to the occasion and
success. But you’re trying way too hard to look like you’re in a
bowling league.

You’re rich. You’re successful. Stop trying to hide it. Embrace it
and make it part of your message. Put the coat and tie back on. Look
presidential and stop being ashamed about it.

And by the way—anyone who wears blue jeans with a dry-cleaning crease, has no business wearing jeans at all.

Obama: Stop looking for an enemy. So many other
presidents were unifiers. They inspired people. They brought us
together. But you can’t give a speech without blaming someone or
pointing out an enemy. Suck it up. Be the man. And if you’re going to
nail the Supreme Court like you did last week, at least get your facts
straight. Making up stuff doesn’t help your cause. You were a
constitutional law professor for crying out loud.

Ronald Reagan was brilliant at inspiring people to come together for a
great cause. John F. Kennedy understood the power of grace. They looked
at us eye to eye and made us believe we could be so much better. You
look down to us and tell us our problems are someone else’s fault.

Blame doesn’t solve anything. Make us rise to the occasion.