To abandon Mitt Romney
It seems that I was wrong. I shall probably have to vote against Mitt Romney, after all. To see why, visit Mr. Romney’s campaign website and watch his recent TV spot, “Searched.”
The thing the TV spot brags about was a fine thing for Mr. Romney to do, maybe, but it is not something one brays over during a political campaign. When Ross Perot ran for the presidency, he did not as far as I remember run TV spots trumpeting his stunning rescue of his employees from revolutionary Iran. Watch Mr. Romney’s TV spot and decide for yourself if you don’t think it tawdry.
Also, it may be a small thing, but when Tim Russert interviewed Mr. Romney December 16, Mr. Romney volunteered that he “wept” for joy when the Mormon church admitted blacks to their priesthood in 1978. Now, maybe he didn’t and maybe he did, but shouldn’t that be between him and his private diary? Candidates for the presidency of the United States do not brag on the air about blubbering. My goodness. I may have been emotional at times in my life, too, I suppose, but I don’t go around in public rehearsing the story. Can you imagine what would happen to Hillary Clinton’s campaign if Mrs. Clinton volunteered something like that? As if to underscore the point, the carefully edited TV spot referenced shows Mr. Romney’s dear business partner on the verge of tears. What are they going to do on the day the Chinese invade Taiwan? Call a Cabinet meeting, cry, pass a wet handkerchief around the table, and console one another over it? Wow. Where’s a drill sergeant when you need one?
The fact is that Mr. Romney is substantially wrong on immigration, substantially wrong on trade, arguably wrong on the income tax and apparently confused on the Second Amendment. To run this TV spot is to succumb to the very kind of temptation I thought that Mr. Romney was strong enough to resist. It seems that I was mistaken.
The Economic Nationalist has, unavoidably I think, lost some of such obscure credibility as it has by backing Mr. Romney, but I would rather admit the error now than to save face by persisting in recommending the wrong candidate. Mr. Romney remains an acceptably flawed candidate for those who happen to agree with him on the issues, but it appears that his strength of character is insufficient to merit the votes of those of us who happen to disagree with him on the issues. Others saw this more clearly than I did. Permit me to repent today.
I am chagrined to find myself now recommending only candidates who score at the bottom of the opinion polls. The Economic Nationalist’s now damaged endorsement falls to Duncan Hunter, with Ron Paul as second choice. If you want a candidate with higher poll numbers, Fred Thompson is not a bad third choice. As for the others, Rudy Giuliani is too brutal, Mike Huckabee is too soft, John McCain is too unbalanced, and—I hate admitting this—Mitt Romney is too plastic.
HJH
December 27th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Better late than never, Howard. The thing I like about your blog is that you always try to tell the truth as you see it. Glad to see you come around. Thompson is the best candidate.
December 31st, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I want to make clear that I do not credit the silly charge that Mr. Romney were somehow a liar. In hundreds of public Romney speeches the worst supposed example of Mr. Romney’s supposed mendacity remains his unpremeditated, one-sentence exaggeration of his career as a game hunter. Of course he was wrong to say that, but one unplanned, exaggerated sentence from hundreds of speeches makes him a liar? I like to think myself a reasonably truthful fellow, but I could not meet such a standard, even if you could. The man got a little carried away in the moment. It happens to the best of us. Perspective is warranted.
I think that the adjective “plastic” is the right word. Mr. Romney is not extreme, but my support of Mr. Romney was always predicated on superior character, not on acceptable character. Did I agree with Mr. Romney more nearly on the issues, I should still support him; but I do not agree with him on the issues. He is not the right candidate for an economic nationalist to support for the Republican nomination in 2008 in my view.
The TV spot referenced really rubbed me the wrong way. Can you imagine Richard Nixon running a spot like that in 1960? That’s what pushed me over the edge, but, really, there is a bigger problem with Mr. Romney than the one TV spot. I like Mr. Romney and think that he could make a good president, but Republicans have better choices in 2008. This is what the article above was about.
Howard