Who Had Mitt Romney's Back?
He should have listened to me on the radio!
Friday,
November 8th, 2012
Baton
Rouge, Louisiana
ROMNEY--IF ONLY
HE HAD LISTENED TO HIS INSTINCTS!
Mitt Romney took the stage
Tuesday night to concede that he had lost his race for president. He came on stage alone, with no family in
teary-eyed support. He stood with
manliness and grace, and said all the right things. He had called the President and wished him
well. He told the crowd that he gave it his all. “We left everything on the field, and gave it
our best.” It was his finest hour.
But where was this Mitt Romney
throughout the presidential campaign?
When his campaign began, his message was simple. “I’m a businessman. I know how to create jobs. I’ve done it in the
private sector and I can do it for America.” His rhetoric resonated with millions
of Americans, and he surged into an early lead in the polls. He was an outsider, who had been successful in
the private sector, and with the economy in turmoil, he offered hope for a
better way. His message was simple,
concise, and hit home to many who were suffering financially.
But then he failed to learn an
important lesson. Football teams that win in November develop a set game plan
in spring training. They don’t change it.
In an effort to pander to the far right
during the early primaries, Romney got off message. His campaign became cold
and cynical. His focus was almost
entirely on being against the president, rather than being for just about anything.
He jumped on the auto bailouts
saying the funds injected into the auto industry were unnecessary, and that GM
should just go bankrupt. This looked
contradictory and two-faced when he chose Ryan as his vice president, who had
voted for the auto bailouts. This ended up
costing him Ohio and Wisconsin. He left
his winning issue and waded into political quicksand by posturing on Medicare, Social
Security, foreign policy and way too many social issues.
In 1992, the Ragin’ Cajun, James
Carville, kept Bill Clinton focused on one issue with, “It’s the economy, stupid.” For Mitt Romney, THE Issue should have been job creation, more job creation… and
nothing more.
I met Mitt Romney in New York
last spring when he had all but sewed up the Republican nomination. He looked you directly in the eye, had a firm
handshake and warm smile, and just looked presidential. When he found out I was from Louisiana, he
rattled off a list of Louisiana friends we had in common, commented about my
home state’s good food and great restaurants, and you would have thought he was
raised down here in the Bayou State. Then
the talk turned to the campaign. And it
was all about jobs.
But then his Republican
competitors and the far right wing of the party boxed Romney in. He became
saddled with the baggage of social issues. He was running with a crowd that looked
backward and campaigned on fear. Fear of
change. Fear of immigrants. Fear of gays. Fear of the future. To have any chance of getting the nomination,
Romney had to “go with the flow.” There’s
an old adage in politics that even a well-meaning politician votes their
conscience 90% of the time, and their politics 10% of the time, so that they
can be there to vote their conscience 90% of the time. For Romney during the
primaries, it was more like 60/40.
Paul Ryan ended up being a poor
choice for vice president. His plans
were really not all that radical, but he had not built a bipartisan consensus
of support. His economic message scared
many voters, particularly his idea to privatize social security and scale back
on Medicare. He was out on the limb
alone, and he frightened many older voters in swing states like Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida. Ryan
couldn’t even carry his own home state of Wisconsin. He became dead weight.
Romney lost big. And Republicans should not be surprised. The GOP has become more and more the party of
old white guys. Across the board, Obama
surged in non-white, male categories. He received 93% of black voters, 71% of
Latinos, won young voters by 34%, unmarried women by 67% and carried women
overall by 55/44%. Republicans were watching
“Madmen,” while Democrats were tuned to “Modern Family.”
If Republicans were not able to
get even 40% of the vote in California, the state that gave birth to the
political future of Ronald Reagan, then they are not going to be the party of
the future. The GOP has now lost 5 of the last 6 elections with the popular
vote. The base has to be dramatically
enlarged, particularly in the Hispanic community, if Republicans hope to stay
competitive nationally. The fastest
growing dynamic in numerous states, including Georgia and my home state of
Louisiana, is Hispanic. Texas is projected to have a Hispanic majority by the
year 2030.
The President still has a hatful
of problems. Second terms do not often bode well for incumbents. There were stumbles by LBJ, (Viet Nam) Richard
Nixon (Watergate), and Ronald Reagan (Iran Contra). But for now, he’s the winner. His party had
his back. They supplied the base on
which his victory was built.
Mitt Romney wasn’t as fortunate. The infrastructure of the GOP was crumbling
when he finally got the nomination. The
hundreds as of millions of campaign fund dollars made little difference. All he had to be was a job creator. But his party betrayed him and pushed him
away from a winning strategy. He is a
good guy and could have been president. But
nobody had his back.
********
“I wish we lived in a place more
like the America of yesteryear that only exists in the brains of us Republicans.”
Ned
Flanders
Peace
and Justice.
Jim
Brown
posted by Jim Brown @ 7:16 PM
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