What Mitt Romney lacked...

Instead of  Mitt Romney being like this...

Mitt Romney came off like this.

And I am (I hope obviously) not suggesting Mitt Romney needed to become Deanna Troi in appearance or (God forbid) décolleté.  Mitt needed to convey some of Deanna Troi's empathy.  There was not enough of this stuff shown.  This is really too bad because the truth is Mitt Romney is probably more empathetic to people than Barack Obama in real life. But in messaging, Mitt Romney failed to convey that and also let the Democrats define him as uncaring and cold.  So that messaging of Shamus the Dog on the roof of the car, Bain Capital, the 47%, was all about killing Romney's chances with those voters who ultimately went overwhelmingly with Barack Obama.  

This is interesting:

Haidt’s research further elucidates the particular importance of care as a moral foundation. His study of anthropology and evolutionary theory led him to the conclusion that humanity possesses six moral foundations: care, fairness, liberty, authority, sanctity, and loyalty. In over 130,000 individual interviews on how relevant each of these moral foundations are to determining right and wrong, Haidt found that conservatives respond to each of them whereas the center and the left appreciate essentially only two: care and fairness.
With the shrinkage of the Republican base by 9 percent over the last few years increasing the importance of attracting voters beyond the base, it is critical that Republicans frame the discussion of their policies in the context of these two moral foundations that resonate with the entire country. That, or they can slip into permanent minority status. 

Rick Perry did not do well in the GOP Primaries.  But Governor Perry is promoting policies that are conservative, pragmatic and also convey that he gets what voters are facing out there.  That is very important.  I am not saying Gov. Perry should be our next nominee (that is not my point).  What I am saying is who ever we run in 2016 needs to recognize how important reaching out to all voters is.