All Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan need is “an intelligent message” to win the White House in November, former New York Gov. George Pataki tells Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview from the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
“The people want a change in direction, and I don’t think we have to have a brilliant political strategy,” Pataki tells Newsmax. “We need to have an intelligent message: This government is too big, it’s too intrusive. It’s too expensive – and we’re going to put in place policies that restore power to the states, to the people, and optimism to the future of the country.”
“We have to point out the tremendous disappointment in Barack Obama over the last four years,” Pataki continued. “And I’m not just talking about Republicans and conservatives. Independents, Democrats – they all understand that the promise of 2008 has turned into the continued high unemployment, record deficits and massive expansion of government in 2012.”
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And Romney can most effectively convey this message on Thursday night in a speech in which “all the governor has to do is be himself,” Pataki said. “He is a very bright, successful guy, as we heard from Ann Romney last night. He’s someone who cares a great deal about people but doesn’t brag about it. He’s a humble man who doesn’t, as she said, help out someone and then run to the press and use it as a political talking point.
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“If he is himself, if he shows his vision for America, if he shows his understanding of the real pain that Americans are feeling today and – in particular – the tremendous risks that we are burdening, that we are imposing on the next generation, on the young people, then he’s going to win this race.”
Regarding Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman and chairman of the House Budget Committee, Pataki said: “Paul Ryan has brought tremendous energy to this ticket and to this campaign. Mitt Romney is a fiscal conservative. Paul Ryan is someone who is not just a fiscal conservative; he has been waving the flag and fighting the fight for responsibility in Washington.
“The combination of Gov. Romney, who ran businesses and ran a state but didn’t have that Washington-insider liability, and Paul Ryan, who’s been there, but has been fighting against Obamacare, against these trillion-dollar-plus deficits, against a fake stimulus program – and who brings tremendous energy, vision, youth, I’m excited about what he brings to the ticket and means for this country.”
As the presidential election marches toward Nov. 6, Pataki said he believes Romney will attract many Democratic votes, as both Republicans did in their respective gubernatorial campaigns.
“There’s no question Gov. Romney’s going to get Democratic votes, and I hope he gets 20 percent or more of the Democratic votes,” Pataki said. “It’s simply the same thing: Democrats are disappointed almost as much as Republicans in the failures of the Obama administration.
“Be yourself, have a vision that Americans can relate to without regard to party and he’s going win this race," Pataki said of Romney.
Looking to a tough race in his own state, between first-term Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican Wendy Long, Pataki believes Long will prevail.
“New York is tough, and it’s always tough. Nobody knows it better than me,” he began. “But, of course, she can win. We just have to keep working. And in New York, you have to reach out to Democrats. You have to make a case across the political spectrum.
“You don’t have to waiver in your principles or policies at all. But you do have to reach out, and if she does that – now, it’s a tough fight, it’s New York State, but I always have hope.”
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