Dawidziak: GOP should refocus on economy

If the Republicans are serious about trying to recapture the White House they have a funny way of showing it.

The road to the presidency starts and ends with the economy. Elections, particularly presidential ones, are referendums on the incumbent. While Barack Obama's overall approval rating has improved (to around 49 percent), his numbers on how he is handling the economy remain dangerously low (around 38 percent).

This will be the overriding issue that will decide how Americans vote in November. The GOP should be doing everything in its collective power to keep the debate centered on the economy.

But instead of keeping their guns trained on fiscal matters, the candidates have decided to center much of their rhetoric on divisive social issues.

Being a social warrior will get you headlines, but my experience as a campaign consultant shows that it's not going to get you elected. And the headlines you do get might not be good ones. Look at the week Mitt Romney had going into yesterday's Super Tuesday battles. He badly fumbled questions about his support of the amendment, sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), that would have allowed any employer, not just religious organizations, to opt out of any health service required by the 2010 health care law. The fact that this was a proposed amendment to a highway funding bill should be enough to confound and enrage the American electorate -- but that's another story.

When first asked about the amendment, he said he didn't support it. His campaign went into immediate damage-control mode, realizing the backlash his answer would have with the hard right. Romney then claimed he did support the amendment and simply misunderstood the question.

Whether you buy this explanation or not, this episode illustrates a problem that Romney has had since the beginning of the primary process. He has battled a continuing identity crisis, trying on one hand to trumpet his moderate history -- which will serve him well in the general election -- while at the same time trying to prove to the right that he is a true conservative.

His conundrum is made that much worse by the fact that none of his challengers share his dilemma. Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul all have fully developed views on social issues that aren't going to be altered by the primary process. While this might immunize them from the flip-flopper charge, in the long run it does their prospects for victory more harm than good.

This isn't to say that social issues aren't important. They go a long way in defining who a candidate is and what he or she stands for. But the economy is Obama's Achilles heel. Every poll, including my own, shows it is the No. 1 issue voters care about by a large percentage.

Throwing barbs at "Obamacare" might draw good coverage on Fox News, but it's also preventing the Republican candidates from convincing the moderate swing voters that they can do a better job reducing unemployment and spurring economic development. These are the issues that all the voters, and not just moderates, truly care about.

Even after yesterday's contests, only 740 of the 2,286 delegates to the Republican National Convention have been selected. That's less than a third, and about 128 of them are unbound. So there's still a long way to go in this primary process.

The Republican contenders will continue to beat each other over the head; that's to be expected. Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment -- thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican -- is far in the rearview mirror. But not keeping the debate on the economy is political suicide.

Michael Dawidziak is a political consultant and pollster.