TAMPA—Mitt Romney did what he had to do during this convention. He avoided scandals and untoward incidents, and he gave an acceptance speech that puts him in a good position to run against Barack Obama. There was a downside to the convention, however, that was not visible on television. It pitted Romney against the Republican party’s activist core. That conflict probably won’t cost him the election, but if he wins the election, it could bring him all kinds of grief.

In his speech, Romney hit the obvious notes: jobs (which he highlighted rather than debt and deficits), women, faith, family, and country. He confined the hot button rightwing issues (the sanctity of life and marriage) to a single sentence toward the end of his speech. And he deflected concerns about his religion by portraying it as a charitable venture. But the most important thing he did was to stake his claim for the presidency on his record as a business consultant. He attributed Obama’s failure to stem the recession to his lack of business experience; and he claimed that because of his experience he would succeed:

The President hasn’t disappointed you because he wanted to. The President has disappointed America because he hasn’t led America in the right direction. He took office without the basic qualification that most Americans have and one that was essential to his task. He had almost no experience working in a business. Jobs to him are about government. I learned the real lessons about how America works from experience.

That’s not necessarily the best strategy for a candidate. In economic downturns, voters often select the candidate who they believe cares about and will fight for them. That was Bill Clinton in 1992. But neither Obama nor Romney are capable of appearing to feel voters’ pain. All Romney can do is try to show that he is trying to care, which is what he did in his speech, although a reference or two to the victims of Hurricane Isaac certainly would have helped. Still, there is another way to winning over voters in bad economic times.

Just as Obama won in 2008 largely because voters admired his intelligence and believed that he understood the economic crisis far better than John McCain did, Romney can win in 2012 if voters believe he is more capable than Obama of bringing down unemployment and getting the country moving again. And his business experience is his main asset in making that claim. If he were to minimize that experience in order to avoid attacks against the specifics of his record at Bain, he would deprive himself of his best selling point. And so Romney and his advisors were wise to play up rather than play down his record.

Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate could hurt him, especially if the Obama campaign can tie Romney to Ryan’s support for privatizing Social Security and turning Medicare into a voucher program, but like his putting forward his record at Bain, it may well turn out to be a risk that was worth taking. Ryan himself appears to have subordinated his views to Romney’s; Ryan didn’t even mention Medicare or Social Security in his speech. At the same time, Ryan’s sheer presence on the ticket helps Romney with the Republican base. And as the convention showed, Romney needs a lot of help with the party’s base.