Over at Smoking Politics, Dave Johnson and I have started re-framing the two political parties into The Marketing Party (the Right/Republican) and The Product Party (the Left/Democrats.) Essentially, our experience shows that when it comes to selling their leaders, the Right is extremely smart, experienced and successful. They understand the dynamics of modern marketing far better, and the reality if the voter marketplace, far better than the Democrats.
Democrats are The Product Party, you see, there actually is something there. A clear example of this is the 9/11 Commission and their recommendations. The Republicans clearly understand how to wave the flag of terror to influence voters but it came down to Speaker Pelosi to get the 9/11 Commission recommendations turned into law. And Majority Leader Reid is still fighting in the Senate for them. One party markets, the other creates the product.
The news that Mitt Romney has spent more money on television advertising than all the other 2008 contenders combined on television ads highlights the marketing angle of the Republicans. Here is a potential candidate who is a blank slate politically for a simple reason.
Candidate Romney can't speak about what Governor Romney stood for. Because Governor Romney pledged to preserve and protect a woman's right to choose.
Governor Romney raised taxes in Massachusetts by hundreds of millions of dollars and called them "fees."
Governor Romney skipped out on Massachusetts for 216 days of his last year in office and announced from Michigan.
Governor Romney has nothing to run on.
So what do you do? You create Candidate Romney from scratch. You raise over $20 million in the first quarter and plow it into television advertising that creates a candidate.
The Romney spots are the political equivalent of beer advertising. There is no there there so it is a constant struggle to create a brand. But here's the catch.
It works.
So Democrats will tut-tut that Romney is an empty suit. They will say that that the only thing consistent is his hair. They will laugh at his flip-flops far and above what other politicians do.
They will underestimate the power of the marketing. And here's the first call.
Mitt Romney is the nominee.
Mitt Romney could well be the next President of the United States. Because the last one term Governor with no accomplishments to speak of, he is on his second term as President because his advisors know what Mitt Romney's do as well -- the Marketing Party wins.