Mitt Romney’s campaign stop in Pennsylvania Tuesday created plenty of buzz and a renewed sense of confidence in the GOP. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus spoke to The Morning Call following the visit:
There’s been much ado over whether Pennsylvania had slipped to a second-tier swing state after consistently picking Democrats in presidential elections. The conventional wisdom has been that Barack Obama has to fight hard to ensure he keeps it, but Mitt Romney has the luxury of focusing his resources on states with greater swing potential like Ohio. But Priebus said the national committee is eyeing Pennsylvania has a state it can win, and plans to “spend a whole boatload of resources.”
“It can be the knock out punch,” he said in a phone interview. “If we can win, which we can do, then it’s lights out for Barack Obama. We wouldn’t be coming up here if we didn’t think Pennsylvania was a state we could win. We have to work hard, we understand that.” Priebus held little back in his portrayal of how the Republicans would go about winning over undecideds in the state. The GOP strategy is to convince voters that Obama hasn’t kept his word to bring the economy back. Pennsylvanians can’t stand show ponies, he said. “While he is in love with the sound of his own voice and his image in mirror he hasn’t been so good at being in love with his own promises,” Priebus said.
Asked how Romney, a man of great wealth and privilege, will endear himself to blue collar Americans, Priebus suggested that the greater goal is to convince voters they don’t want Obama rather than convince them they want Romney. There are two general check boxes for voters, Priebus said. The first is whether Obama fulfilled his mission as president — are voters better off than they were four years ago. The second is whether Republicans put forward a suitable alternative. He said at least half of the electorate has said no to the first box. The process going forward, at the convention and into the fall, is to get them to say yes to the second.
