The apples don't fall far from the tree.
According to a story in today's Boston Globe, "Mitt" Romney, the purported "front runner" in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination, has refused to sign an anti-abortion pledge that five other GOP contenders support, even as he maintains that he is "firmly pro-life".
To anyone old enough to remember the very well-funded but ineffectual Presidential Campaign run by "Mitt's" father George back in 1968 (or, I might add, Mitt's own equally well-funded but equally ineffectual campaign for Senate against the late Senator Kennedy), this latest episode of "Mitt's" fecklessness merely confirms that the DNA of the Romney Family is set permanently within the "sex and money" wing of the Republican Party.
I do not know the formula for greatness and success in national politics; but I do know the formula for mediocrity and failure: have no enduring principles. Because "Mitt" is a waffler and doesn't permanently stand for anything, he will fall for everything. And while this fatal flaw didn't catch up to him as Governor of Massachusetts, it will consign him to failure in the great electoral struggle that is played out on the larger canvass of American Presidential politics.
In the present and approaching crises, it is no answer for his supporters to say that "Mitt" is "good at business" or that he is preferable to the current Community-Organizer-In-Chief (now The Great-Golfer-In-Chief). Most Republican Presidential hopefuls meet the former test; all satisfy the latter.
No. GQ good looks, nice hair, money, intergalactic ambition, the opinion of the comfortable and the respectable, even business acumen and an MBA from Harvard Business School matter far less than high ideals, the willingness to endure hardship, solidarity with one's suffering countrymen, and the guts to adhere to noble principles even though the water is cold and deep.
The tergiversating, silver-spooned "Mitt" lacks these to the same degree that his Grosse Point Farms, Fortune 500 father George lacked them. As a result, he faces the same fate.
Conservatives seeking real change have much better choices than pretty boy "Mitt" at this stage of the campaign.
I recall the Romney/Kennedy senatorial debate with horror. Romney actually managed to lose the debate soundly; it takes serious mediocrity to actually lose a debate with the world’s least articulate senator. I recall Kennedy accusing Romney of offering the same only less and Romney could not deny the accusation with any plausibility. The pundits were dancing in the streets afterwards. Clips from the debate are all over YouTube and none of them will help Romney’s campaign.
ReplyDeletemy favorite sentence: "GQ good looks, nice hair, money, intergalactic ambition, the opinion of the comfortable and the respectable, even business acumen and an MBA from Harvard Business School matter far less than high ideals, the willingness to endure hardship, solidarity with one's suffering countrymen, and the guts to adhere to noble principles even though the water is cold and deep."
ReplyDeleteCertainly “intergalactic ambition” gets points for a subtle stab at what is approximately equal to a belief in Santa. The best contemporary epistemology explains why a grown man with a Harvard MBA could entertain such mythology; nevertheless, seeing a Santa on every corner usually raises doubts by about six years of age in the average lied-too child, why then is Mitt still a Mormon in his 60’s? Why not a reasonable flip-flop to the one true faith?
ReplyDelete