Romney concedes on "likability" - will run on his "credentials"

From the Wall Street Journal:

Mitt Romney may be conceding — the likability battle, that is.

Eric Fehrnstrom and Peter Flaherty, senior advisers to the Romney campaign, acknowledged in the starkest terms yet that instead of trying to win the likability race against President Barack Obama, they’ll focus on their candidate’s credentials.

So lets take a look at what the Romney campaign will have to work with when it comes to credentials.

In the arena of public service, Steve Benen demonstrates that Romney has the least experience of any presidential candidate since the 1940's.


(click here for a larger view.)

And using this metric, Romney has only four years under his belt. He served one term as the governor of Massachusetts -- and that's it. This makes Romney the least experienced major-party presidential nominee since Republican Wendell Wilkie lost to FDR in 1940. If Romney wins, he'll be the least experienced president since Woodrow Wilson, who won exactly 100 years ago, despite only having been governor of New Jersey for two years before his national campaign.

So its clear that "credentials" don't include public service. Perhaps they're talking about Romney's years as a vulture capitalist where he is the personification of the character Gordon Gekko. Its true that Romney's rhetoric, stripped of all its spin, mirrors the famous line from Gekko.

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.

So I say "go for it" Romney campaign. Run on your guy's credentials. Its just as much of a strategy for failure as trying to make him appear likable.