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6A Daily News – Thursday, August 30, 2012 Opinion DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 For Romney, election hinges on middle class The conventional wisdom is that this week's Republican National Convention needs to make Mitt Romney more "lik- able" — to replace his image as a frosty billionaire with the warmer (and, friends say, more accurate) picture of a family man, devout Mormon and private do-gooder. And yes, the convention TAMPA, Fla. (MCT) — began on Tuesday with bio- graphical tributes, testimoni- als to Mitt the mensch and an appealing speech from the candidate's appealing wife, Ann Romney, who said: "You can trust Mitt. ... He will take us to a better place." ney's real problem. If likabili- ty were a necessary part of electability, Richard M. Nixon wouldn't have won two presidential elections. Instead, what Romney needs to do at this convention is convince struggling mid- dle-class voters that he will address their needs more effectively than President Obama has. Romney's advisors here were heartened this week by polls showing their candidate running even with Obama, even before the three-day infomercial of the convention. The same polls show him winning on the key question of which candidate voters trust more to fix the economy. But there's also a poll num- ber that's a headache for Romney: the one showing that most voters think that his policies as president would favor the wealthy. For Obama, the numbers are reversed: Most voters said his policies favor the middle class. But likability isn't Rom- Since almost 90 percent of Americans consider them- selves members of the middle class, that's a problem for Romney, one far more serious than the silly issue of likabil- ity. Romney in Tampa this week is this: To show voters a new side of their candidate — not warm-and-fuzzy Mitt, but Middle-Class Mitt. Romney won't claim to be a son of the middle class (that would strain credulity, even among the faithful), but he will try to show that middle- income families, not just the wealthy, would benefit from the changes he seeks. So the real goal of Team Expect to hear less about capital gains tax rates and more about jobs, higher take- home pay, even better training programs for the unemployed. Expect to hear the words "middle class" a lot too; every Romney surrogate I've talked to here at the convention seems to be reading from the same set of talking points. The retooling of the Rom- portraying Romney as the kind of businessman who eliminates jobs more often than he creates them. Voters "don't know much about Mitt Romney, and they have been told a bunch of terrible things about him," said former Missis- sippi Gov. Haley Barbour, mockingly reeling off a list: "He doesn't care about people like you. He ships jobs to China. ... He's a plutocrat married to a known equestrian." Doyle But the problem isn't Romney's wealth — or even the fact that Ann Romney is a "known equestrian"; it's his policies and the language he uses to describe them. McManus poor; in some cases, their tax bills would go up as everyone else's went down. Romney has sometimes sounded as if he were still stuck in the GOP primaries, describing his eco- nomic plan as a quest for economic free- dom (whose benefits conservatives take as self-evident) rather than a step-by-step program to revive the economy. But voters who believe that tax cuts are the best way to spur growth have already made up their minds. Romney needs a few more ney message began several weeks ago, when the candi- date boiled his 59-point "Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth" down to a five-point "Plan for a Stronger Middle Class." The proposals were the same, but the emphasis was different: more about help for small businesses, less about tax cuts. several obstacles, however. For one thing, Obama and his campaign claimed the ter- ritory first. The president has been relentless in wrapping the words "middle class" around his programs — and in Middle-Class Mitt faces Americans don't merely admire the rich, especially the working rich; we vote for them all the time. Heck, we'd like to be them. But Romney is a rich man whose policies often sound — to many voters, anyway — aimed at helping job creators more than job holders. His tax plan's centerpiece, for exam- ple, is a reduction in all income tax rates by 20%, a change that would benefit high-income, high-tax house- holds most. Critics charge that a cut that deep would require eliminating middle- class tax breaks like the mort- gage interest deduction; Rom- ney says he would protect the middle class, but he hasn't spelled out how. Meanwhile, his plan also eliminates sever- al tax breaks for the working undecided voters, the ones without strong views on eco- nomic theory, if he is to win. And, of course, Romney has to sound as if he means it. For a candidate who has long faced charges that he flip- flops, another retooling won't be risk-free. It's fashionable to dismiss the conventions as outmoded, bloated talkathons — and they are. But this year, the conventions might also mat- ter. After a summer of squab- bling over less important issues, Romney and Obama now have a chance to begin a clear head-to-head debate over the central question of the election: Who has the bet- ter plan for reviving the econ- omy? Doyle McManus is a columnist for The Los Angeles Times. Readers may send him email at doyle.mcmanus@latimes.co m. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capi- tol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacra- mento, CA 95814 (916) 651- 4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814;(916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558- 3160; E-mail: governor@gov- ernor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Ceanothus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393- 0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. What will be post-9/11 generation's moment? Commentary versation Saturday after hear- ing about the passing of Neil Armstrong. I was speaking with my mother on the phone when she complained about the lack of news coverage the death of the first man on the moon was receiving when compared to someone such as Whitney Houston. I got into an interesting con- landed, but she still remembers the event vividly. Too young to accurately remember Kennedy's assassi- nation, she said the moon land- ing was the biggest television moment of her life. She asked what mine was. I didn't take long to say it was 9/11. Playing devil's advocate, I pointed out the man was 82 years old and in declining health for some time, so how much was the story news any- way. That's when she let me have it and I realized how fortunate her generation was. My mother may have only been nine when Apollo 11 obvious — that's depressing. Actually that's probably a My mom pointed out the light word to use when compar- ing the deaths of 2,996 people to one of the greatest techno- logical feats of mankind. My mom has lived her life vulnerable. My mom seems fortunate enough to have been born in the right time in her his- tory. would have told her that. After all I'm sure my grandmoth- er's biggest radio moment in life was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Every generation will attach itself to some moment. Her own mother with vivid memories of Ameri- ca conquering the heights of its imagination. I have lived mine with vivid memories of America being moment. But it'll be a moment they will all share, spread through whatever MyFace or Twooter device they're into at the time. Rich Greene wonder what that moment will that be for the post-9/11 gener- ation. It won't be a radio moment, or probably even a television It becomes interesting to event that angers or inspires, I don't know. But the younger generation will know it's happening when everyone they know feels humbled at the same time. Whether it's an Reporter Rich Greene can be reached at 527-2151, Ext. 109 or by email at rgreene@redbluffdailynews.co m.