On choosing a President or a toothpaste...

I accidentally sent an email to Pippa who lives in NH (just hit ok for 'auto-recognize' on the To: line) but that prompted a really nice note from her.

She shared how the state is already swarming with presidential hopefuls and how people honestly say, "I can't vote for so-and-so because he didn't come by my house or shake my hand." It sounded hectic and fascinating at the same time.

Made me realize that, although we like to think that it's for complex, sophisticated reasons that we choose a President or a toothpaste, in many cases, we are fooling ourselves.

There's an old adage in sales, 'people buy emotionally and justify logically.'

You are emotionally connected to a candidate and then come up with reasons why you want to vote for him/her.

I was thinking about this because I saw the Romney's on TV this AM. While he's not my candidate, I really liked his wife. She seemed very strong in her own right and possessing a lot of personality, but not overbearing in a Hillary type way.

I wondered...how many people saw this and would start saying to themselves..."Yeah, the Romney's seem like a good couple, maybe I'll give them a chance."

Which leads me to the complex analysis of the Republican slate. Here's the rub (isn't it always), Romney could very well win the nomination and play well in the primaries, but given some of what he said this AM and the general anti-Bush/GOP feeling now (granted it could change, yeah right), I doubt he could win it all.

The only GOP person who could is...IMHO...Rudy.

Obviously his divorce, pro-gay/pro-choice views wouldn't necessarily play well with the right-wing, but Rudy's play is this:

"Vote for me or give the White House to the Democrats. Your choice."

Would conservatives 'stay home' in this scenario and forfeit the White House thinking "I'd rather have a liberal I can defeat later than a liberal GOP who might be there for 8 years?" Is it worse to have nothing or part of something? Either way, you lose the key "values" issues. I'm not sure and since that's not my slate, it's hard for me to know.

Of course, Rudy's problem in the primary is that this may be a more complex, analytical approach, harder to sell, and thus harder to convince. The idea may not be simple, it doesn't spread easily, and it made be hard to get stuck in the voters' minds.