Romney looks back, Palin moves forward

Comparing Mitt Romney's first statement yesterday with Palin's is like night and day. Romney's was dry, boring, stale, defeatist with an air of condescension. Take for instance this portion:

[Obama] promised better; we deserved better. His health-care bill is unhealthy for America. It raises taxes, slashes the more private side of Medicare, installs price controls, and puts a new federal bureaucracy in charge of health care. It will create a new entitlement even as the ones we already have are bankrupt. For these reasons and more, the act should be repealed. That campaign begins today. 

A rambling, droning statement that is spent mostly discussing the bill we're already familiar with. It reads like a college-level paper: a dry re-hash of well-known facts, concluded with "for these reasons, X should be done." There is no passion, no new ideas in his statement. Also note how he says the act "should be" repealed, using the passive voice. It's a pie-in-the-sky idea according to Romney, not an achievable goal. The whole piece is him looking backward and then at the very end says "it should be repealed." How? When? Where? Who will lead? He doesn't even take a proactive lead! Saying the bill "should be repealed" is as effective as "hope and change." It's empty rhetoric without action to back it up. He needs to provide more than half a sentence of an idea to stir some passion with voters.

Palin's statement was the opposite. She was energetic, enthusiastic and called everyone to action at a specific place in time, November elections. She empowered her readers and gave them real hope to repeal the bill.

We mustn’t be discouraged now. We must look to November when our goal will be to rebuke big government’s power grab, reject this unwanted “transformation” of America, and repeal dangerous portions of Obamacare that will bury us under more Big Government control.

She takes the lead on the repeal by giving us information on how to do it. She spells out a goal. She tells us we can throw out the corrupt Democrats and elect true patriots who will vote according to the will of the people. It starts with us, the voters. She firmly believes a repeal can be achieved. She states that we can't be discouraged because it would be too easy to feel that way. Romney is reveling in the misery, Palin is telling us to buck up. Palin stirs passion and hope with her words, Romney puts readers to sleep. It's crystal clear that Palin will be more effective than Romney in getting a repeal done.