Mr. Foley, Get Thee to Columbus, Georgia.

Politics has gone quiet in the aftermath of last week’s bumper crop of party primaries.  Private meetings and consultations on finding the way forward accompanies the welcome mid-August lull.  This would not be possible in the aftermath of a vigorous September primary. These three weeks between the aftermath of the primaries and the unofficial start of the fall campaign can be used for good or squandered in complacency.  In 2006, Senator Joseph Lieberman used the immediate post-primary weeks to dig in to his new status as an independent.  Ned Lamont went silent as he waited for the Democratic party elite to pressure Lieberman out of the race.  Lieberman, scoffing, stole a lead on Lamont that he never lost.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley must renovate his campaign after his narrow escape from defeat on August 10th. Mr. Foley’s fast slide began when Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele’s campaign began airing devilishly clever ads that allowed earnest residents of Georgia to describe Foley’s stewardship of a doomed mill with the easy to remember name, The Bibb.   Mr. Foley protested that the ominous ads didn’t tell the true or entire story of his experience in the doomed domestic textile industry. He responded by opening fire on Fedele’s association with the destructive policies of Governor M. Jodi Rell and saved himself from a humiliating defeat, but only just.

Ambassador Foley never explained in a compressed, coherent ad that is the lingua franca of modern campaigns what happened at The Bibb.  He must. Michael Fedele defined and nearly defeated him on the ashes of that mill.  The Greenwich plutocrat should stand on the wreckage of the mill (it burned after he left the company) and talk about his experience making hard decisions.  Throw in a couple of lines on the struggle to compete by changing stubborn assumptions and confronting new forces.  For The Bibb, change came too late.  There’s still time to save Connecticut, though not much.  Roust a testimonial from a clear-eyed local who’s not still in a twist over The Bibb’s fate.

Turn those frowns upside down, you know in your heart Harvard-trained brain that big leads can vanish.  Save yourself. Explain, Mr. Foley, why Connecticut voters ought to put your unhappy experience to work for them.  Linda McMahon’s early ads addressed to good effect adversity (her 1970s bankruptcy) and how it shaped her success.  You’re no Linda McMahon, Mr. Foley, but with a script, a sumptuous lunch, and a few locals, you should be able to tell a relevant, compelling story of these urgent times.