The one thing the liberal media attempts daily to portray to the masses: optimism. Whenever I read the title of an MSNBC headline on Google News, this artificially-inflated confidence is so easy to pick up. Whether it's Democrat analysts dissecting a "favorable" poll, or liberal commentator triumphantly proclaiming the impossible task of getting average Joes to relate to Mitt Romney...the level of arrogance therein is rather disgusting. But it's not exactly surprising or stupid, given that there are apparently enough viewers to keep these stories consistently at the top of the political sections of major news outlets online. If they were, heaven forbid, about to lose an election, moping about it wouldn't exactly do much to rally uncertain Dems out to the ballot box, now would it?
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I feel as if there is a subtle yet powerful connection between this "campaign strategy" and Obama's suave sense of assurance that he attempts to project into every other aspect of his presidency. Egypt falling to Islamists? Eh, no big deal. Unemployment still a nightmare? "The private sector is doing ok." Pardon me folks, but when it comes to being out of touch with reality, Obama is out of Romney's league. Well, of course with enough audio editing, even Romney can appear like a total air-head, but hey that just demonstrates the creativity of MSNBC's sound crew, right?
My point in all of this is that we conservatives, as a collective (no, that's not a strictly communist term) have to interject an increased sense of optimism into our discourse, especially on the national media scene. Disparaging Obama gets old after a while...yes, I said it. I love Fox News to death, but instead of the same old doomsday predictions, let's get more scenarios of growth, hope, and dare I say...change?
In the world of policy debate, debaters are intensely focused on research and answering the "line-by-line" as best as possible (responding to each and every point). Yet equally important is the need to frame all these arguments within a general framework for how to evaluate the final decision at the end of the round...the bigger picture, as it were. In a similar way, I wouldn't mind seeing a clearer road map from anyone, particularly Romney, about the prioritization of policy initiatives in the future. Now, this doesn't mean we have to show our full hand to the Dems, but a timeline accompanied by analysis of potential benefits goes a long way towards improving the general appeal of a campaign platform and rendering it competitive with Obama's failures. FDR was able to use his charm to trick America into believing in his grand dream for a more progressive nation, and his successors have done their best to do the same.
Fighting fire with fire can and will work, but we need to take the high ground for American unity and pride. From that vantage point, the contrast with Obama's divisive, last-ditch grasps for an electoral comeback will begin to make all the more difference.
