The November elections are less than 3 months away, the party conventions are starting and soon the debates will be on TV so this is the time when those who only follow politics once a year will start to pay attention.  Conservatives must be ready to give our arguments for our candidate in a persuasive, concise manner and this post will help you do just that.

News/Political junkies who are active on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the original social media (face-to-face water cooler conversations) already know who they’ll be voting for and have had dozens, if not hundreds, of conversations about the election over the past year.  As someone who has been interested in politics since I was in High School, it is hard for me to grasp the fact that there are people in 2012 who have no interest in the issues and challenges that face the United States during this election cycle but since I’ve been happily married to one of these individuals for almost 13 years, I have come to understand them and this is why I think I can help those who are confused about how to deliver our political message to these political novices.

Like it or not, a vast majority of Americans are like my wife.  They are immersed with jobs, family and a host of other activities that consume the hours of the day and since politics isn’t something they are interested in, they choose to spend their valuable and all too little idle time in other valuable pursuits.  This diversity is what makes America great but in the coming months, it is the duty of every Conservative to become a missionary of sorts and deliver the Conservative gospel to as many as we can in hopes that we can make an impact on November 6^th.

Let’s face it, we will not be able to persuade a true independent voter with White Papers, graphs and links to awesome blog sites when we bump into them at the mall or at Starbucks.  We’ll need to be ready with a killer elevator pitch for our candidates and I’ll show you how to craft your own and I’ll share mine.

The Elevator Pitch

Most every person who has attempted to start a company knows what an elevator pitch is.  This is a powerful speech that you make to a potential investor that is short (less than a minute) and, not only grabs the attention of the target audience within the first 10 seconds, but delivers the main benefit of the business.  A successful elevator pitch will lead the potential investor to inquire about more information and then will result in an investment in the business.

There is a great website that gives tips on generating a winning elevator pitch and while this site is geared for business, it has value for us as we are attempting to craft a political elevator pitch for Mitt Romney as President. 

Here is a great introduction from that site on what an elevator pitch is and is not.

 “While you no doubt love, are fascinated by, and are passionate about what you are doing and could spend hours talking about it, most people aren’t like you.  In all likelihood, when it comes to the people whose help you will need to bring your Solution to life, they aren’t going to be nearly as knowledgeable about or as interested in it as you are. As a result, they are unlikely to appreciate — or even notice — the intricacies, subtleties, and details of it. Instead, they will only understand and — initially at least — be interested in the big picture.”

“One reason why so many people deliver completely ineffective elevator pitches is they don’t understand the purpose of an elevator pitch. They act like the purpose of an elevator pitch is to close the deal while in truth the purpose of an elevator pitch is to just interest the audience in continuing to talk.”

The website states that the elevator pitch has 11 components and all of them start with the letter “C” and are given below:

1. Concise

2. Clear

3. Compelling

4. Credible

5. Conceptual

6. Concrete

7. Customized

8. Consistent

9. Conversational

Remember, the elevator pitch is not meant to ‘close the deal’ but instead provide a ‘hook’ so the target audience desires to enter into a longer conversation about the topic, idea or business.

With that in mind, here is my elevator pitch for Mitt Romney.

The elections in November are, in many aspects, the most important elections in American history and they can be distilled down to a choice between two radically different philosophies. 

Romney and Conservatives believe that individual liberty, as manifested in entrepreneurship and innovation, drives wealth creation and provides the best means for all of society to prosper and provide tax revenue for the Government to carry out its constitutional duty.  History has taught us that a small government approach allows the Free Market to generate wealth that is enjoyed by all socioeconomic groups and private sector innovation can be considered the rising tide that lifts all boats.

Obama and Liberals believe that a large government approach, from redistribution of wealth through higher income taxes, does a better job of generating wealth than the private sector and they believe that US citizens should be indebted to this benevolent big government.  Obama believes that the government exists to provide for every need of its citizens and the roughly 50% of citizens who pay our federal tax revenues should pay even higher taxes to fund the government entitlement programs that the other 50% now depend on.

That pitch should take about a minute and should grab the person’s attention to ask for more details.  At this point I’ll add another 30 seconds of follow-up that will further lay out the massive problems that our country faces and describe how Obama has contributed to our problems.

Obama’s tactics to redistribute wealth have not worked for the past 4 years and we can see that by the anemic recovery and Unemployment rates above 8%.  Obamacare is already killing businesses and will be worse once fully implemented.  Obama has divided America with his Class Warfare tactics and demonized small business owners and those who have been successful in starting businesses that hire people.  The US national debt is greater than our total output from all businesses and we are on the path that is similar to Greece because we’ll soon be in a position where we can’t pay our bills because we have discouraged innovation and business.  Over 90% of the US Federal income tax revenue goes to pay for entitlement programs such as Social Security, Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid and Unemployment benefits and if these entitlement programs are left unchanged, they will destroy America.

Only Romney and Ryan have real plans to address these all too serious issues by removing government regulation that kills business, repealing Obamacare, reforming entitlement programs and balancing our federal budget.

So that is my elevator pitch (plus follow-up) for Romney and I encourage other conservatives to generate their own and be prepared to deliver it on a moment’s notice.  This election is too important to sit on the sidelines and let the Leftist media control the narrative.  It is said that in the absence of information, people will make up their own perceptions so it is up to us to counter the lies of the Left.  Be prepared!

I welcome others to leave their own elevator pitches in the comments section because another important part of an elevator pitch is to keep it fresh and I hope to build on my elevator pitch with the additional conversations from those who read this blog.

ADDENDUM – The justification for my claims in the above elevator pitch can be found here, here and here.