Simon Sez: One Name to Blame for the Mitt Romney Loss

Matt Rhoades was the reason Mitt Romney lost the Presidential election.

Ok, so now you’re asking, “Who’s Matt Rhoades?”

If you had to ask the question, now you know why Romney lost. Matt Rhoades was the campaign manager and was invisible throughout the campaign.

Romney Lost: What is unsuccessful campaign manager Matt Rhoades thinking today after the Romney lost election?

Matt Rhoades will never be mentioned in the same league as Karl Rove,Dick Morris or James Carville. Now those were guys who made sure they and their candidates were in our face.

As a result, his kind of culture made Romney invisible the last week of the campaign. It was fatal because President Obama got all the traction he needed for the few days immediately after Hurricane Sandy.

Perhaps Romney lost due to destiny.

Matt Rhoades really didn’t come in with a great track record.

His previous experience was director of opposition research for George Bush in 2004. How hard is it to come up with stuff about John Kerry?

Here’s why many candidates would have used to disqualify him for the job. Rhoades was the deputy communications director for the Republican National Committee in 2006. We all know how that turned out. Nancy Pelosi became a household name because of the lousy results they delivered, losing the House and Senate to Democrats.

The old formula, “Stay on message” strategy was successful for years until the explosion of the Internet. Al Gore lost in 2000 because he got off message the last three days. The Internet was used by Americans but the dynamics of how to make it impact people to do something hadn’t been perfected like it is today. Remember, there was very little social media then.

Today the formula is change the message immediately when required because news cycles and people’s attention span are often less than 60 minutes. Romney stayed on message – the state of the economy – and the result was Romney lost. .

The economy message was losing steam in the last month. Unemployment dropped below 8 percent. Remember all the pundits who said, “No President since Roosevelt” has won re-election with unemployment higher than 8 percent.”

That statistic remains intact.

Romney lost in part due to his non-aggressive personality.

For that, Rhoades’ style was a perfect fit.

But not for voters. Former KMOX general manager Robert Hyland repeatedly told his on-air talent including yours truly, “I want to hear more energy on the air.”

That’s what was missing too from Romney’s run for the White House. The campaign looked like a sailboat on semi-rough waters. It could float but it wasn’t going to change direction quickly to get out of harm’s way.

So there you have it. For future elections, look at who’s running the campaign. For those of you thinking about running, it’s probably going to be difference between winning and losing. Romney lost by 400,000 votes over four states that would have won the Electoral College.

We’ll close with a quiz. Who was Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager in 1980?

William Casey.

Unless you have the dynamic image and personality of Ronald Reagan, get yourself an Albert Pujols for clout in your campaign.