cute fuzzy animals

courtesy of derek tam

Let’s talk about cute fuzzy animals. I know on this blog I’ve covered the cuteness factor before. Evidently, in the scientific community, there is a correlation between appeal/overall attractiveness of the species and the degree of focus it receives from scientific studies. Essentially, there is a large number of endangered species condemned to extinction partly due to the fact that they’re ugly. I’m fairly certain this correlation extends to other avenues of life as well. In the workplace for example, your cuteness/attractiveness could potentially advance your career as people could subconsciously (or consciously) enjoy working with you more.

There is also evidence that attractiveness helps a person’s political career as well. The classic example is Nixon vs. JFK in the 1960 election. Nixon refused to wear makeup for the first televised debate ever, JFK looked way better than him, and Nixon lost the election. At this point I’d like to make a confession (spoiler alert). I’m actually using cute fuzzy animals as a sneaky way (=/ I’m sorry) to introduce the topic of what Romney needs to do to win this election. I apologize for the deception, but do you realize how hard it is to get someone to read a post about republican campaign strategy?? On the other hand, everybody loves cute fuzzy animals. They’re cute, fuzzy, what’s not to like?

So last night, Romney and President Obama debated for the last time, supposedly on foreign policy. These two do not really differ much on foreign policy, so the debate quickly turned to domestic fiscal policy. Long story short, Romney didn’t look so hot yesterday. To many voters, he looks like a decent option, but he doesn’t give off that presidential vibe that Obama does. In essence, he doesn’t look as attractive as a potential president, as the current president. And his chances (according to statistical data Sean forwarded) dropped overnight. He is currently projected to rack up 247 electoral votes, 23 short of the requisite 270. So, how does Romney make up that deficit and become more attractive to voters? In other words, how does he make himself into cute fuzzy animal?

My crackpot theory, is basically to cater to both young voters, and also Asian voters. I know, a lot of focus is on African American, Jewish, and Latino voters (in terms of minority groups), but not much effort seems to be aimed at courting the young (18+) and the Asians. Rock the Vote has been around for a while, but that doesn’t seem to do much in mobilizing the young voters. As far as Asian voters, there aren’t that many Asian folks in higher government offices (our people seem to focus on the sciences), so there isn’t as much of a voice for the typical Asian American voter. If Romney came out and courted both of these interest groups, it could fire up the electorate and get a lot of these young or Asian voters on his side (and ciphon Asian votes from the democrats).

Great, so how does he do that?? How does he make himself more attractive practically? There are so many options, speak at colleges, meet with youth groups, meet with Asian American associations in major cities, kiss Asian babies, even dance gangnam style onstage after the debate. He could be doing so much more to get their vote. I’m thinking courting the 18+ and Asian votes could potentially open up California for contest (right now it’s squarely blue) and possibly even New York. That puts 84 electoral votes (CA – 55, NY – 29) in play. All Romney needs to do is raise his profile with these two groups, look more like the cute fuzzy animal instead of the unattractive and soon to be politically endangered candidate.