Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been offered the opportunity to launch a good-natured offensive against late night talk show hosts with joke-laden monologues aimed at David Letterman, Jay Leno and other late night TV denizens. Romney has been the unwitting butt of jokes by the comedians who have made merciless sport of the former Massachusetts governor.
If Romney accepts the offer made by South Florida marketing executive Jay Schorr, it would be the first time in modern American presidential campaigning that a candidate has attempted to turn the tables on the denizens of late night television. Many pundits believe that comedic swipes at presidential candidates by popular show hosts can significantly sway voter sentiment.
“This is an opportunity for Mitt to have a defining moment like Bill Clinton did when he played his sax on the Arsenio Hall Show during the ’92 presidential election campaign, “ said Schorr.
According to Schorr, appearing on Hall’s show gave Clinton a cool, everyman’s appeal to which voters responded in a big way. He said that Romney can capture that same swagger with “some really funny lines” aimed at Letterman, Leno and other talk show hosts who have been less than kind to Romney.
Just like the late night talk show hosts, Romney will have his material written for him by some of America’s top comedy writers.
“Governor Romney is a forward-thinking kind of guy with creative solutions to America’s problems,” said Schorr. “He can really win people over with some finely-honed humor; the only thing missing from his political repertoire.”
Schorr recommends that Romney air the 30-second monologues as part of his paid political announcements.
Adding urgency to Romney’s need to connect with voters is a new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press conduced Feb. 8-12 that indicates Rick Santorum’s in a statistical tie with the former governor. The survey comes on the heels of Santorum caucus and primary victories in Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.
"Staying the course is a Mitt specialty and an asset because it shows continuity," Schorr said. "But sometimes you have to take the initiative and step up your game; this is the time for Mitt get a little out of his comfort zone and hit one out of the park."
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