The Lessons of the Father ("The rap on Mitt Romney" ...)

Boston Glob Magazine ^ | 8/13/06 | Neil Swidey

[bitt]

"The rap on Mitt Romney is that he's scripted,safe, skin-deep.But if you saw your dad endure what his did, you might watch what you say,too.

There, you said it.There's no taking it back. Maybe the regret formed in your mind even before the last syllable of the Godforsaken comment had left your lips. Maybe you thought nothing of it until 12 hours later, when a voice woke you out of your REM rebound, demanding to know,"What in the hell were you thinking?"Either way, it was too late. We've all said something at some point in our lives that we desperately wanted to take back. In 1976,I was a precocious second-grader listening to my mother explain that she was going to a baby shower for a friend. "Wouldn't it be funny," I asked her, delighted to show off my knowledge of a new word I had picked up, "if she had a miscarriage and she had to give back all those baby gifts?" Not funny.All these years later, and I can still recall the look of sadness and disgust frozen on my mother's face.I'm sure she has long since forgotten that comment,but I haven't.

On August 31,1967, George Romney, the voluble,vigorous three-term governor of Michigan and former automotive executive, walked into a Detroit TV station to be interviewed by a local broadcaster with a lousy hairpiece. For more than a year, Romney had been talked about as the Republicans' best chance for winning the White House in 1968. But the national campaign trail, at first welcoming, had become bumpy. Reporters pressed Romney repeatedly to explain his ever-evolving and often confusing position on military involvement in Vietnam, which he had strongly supported after a visit to South Vietnam in 1965 but later declared a tragic mistake. Polls showed his lead fading.

[bitt]

..."We can be sure of this much: Unlike most of the governors and senators whose names get bandied about as presidential gold only to melt under the glare of the national spotlight, Mitt Romney is ready for prime time. His steady hand and media savvy running the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics showed the world that. The lessons of the father have been learned, and learned well, by the son. He is not likely to flub his way to footnote status. But will he remember to breathe? Will he allow himself to go off script? Will he be able to get past that reputation for being so polished that he sometimes seems almost plastic?

His most recent test, stepping forward after 12 tons of Big Dig concrete fell and killed Milena Del Valle, suggests there may be some trouble ahead. On one level, the challenge of getting to the bottom of the Big Dig mess is tailor-made for our CEO-governor. After all, executive competence is precisely the reason that liberal Democratic Catholic Massachusetts gave a conservative Republican Mormon its top job, and Romney has shown reassuring leadership in taking charge of the investigation. No one has talked so confidently about bolts and screws since Henry Phillips named one after himself in the 1930s. But on a deeper level, the Big Dig crisis hints at an emotional deficit in the public Romney. It's a safe bet that either Bill Clinton, with his ability to speak from the heart, or George W. Bush, with his ability to speak from the gut, would have known that shaken citizens needed more from their chief executive in his first comments after the tragedy than a perfunctory apology to the family of the deceased and a lengthy exposition on how the courts would be used to settle an old political score."

[bitt]

Wow, NOT a hit piece.......

[Panerai]

Common now, Mitt has really nice hair. He's the best looking RINO out there.

[Torie]

Here is the key paragraph as to why Romney fils may get the traction Romney pere never had:

"Beneath the surface, however, Romney version 2.0 runs on a different operating system. Whereas George Romney was often zestful, impulsive, hot-tempered, Mitt is analytical, cautious, even-keeled. Michigan reporters loved to cover George because they knew they could always get him worked up enough to deliver a headline. You never hear Beacon Hill reporters talk about Mitt like that."

Romney fils is a first tier candidate for president, and deserves to be. You can write that down.

[Democratshavenobrains]

In my opinion, saying we should deploy our troops to Okinawa and easily respond to events in the Middle East is a lot more stupid than the brainwashing comment. Of course, Murtha is a Democrat with almighty veteran status, so nobody is going to make fun of him for his stupidity.

[LdSentinal]

Apart from saving the 2002 Winter Olympics, any other accomplishments?

[Torie]

Why Romney is my second choice ping.

[Torie]

He fixed the fiscal mess in Mass, and has a creative idea about medical subidies. But I don't care about that much really. I give a high weight to smarts and temperment and honesty and management skills. Romney gets an "A" in all four.

[sionnsar]

Come on now, Mitt has really nice hair. He's the best looking RINO out there.

I only vaguely remember George Romney. But Mitt... he's not George.

I don't give a rip about whether someone is Mormon -- I'm actively engaged in supporting the campaign of one such, going from the state House to Senate, who is extremely well qualified (he's a bit more libertarian than I am, but a thoughtful, intelligent legislator -- and in this blue state we elect too few of the latter.) I've worked for and with Mormons.

Mitt, now, is a mystery. He breaks the mold set by all the Mormons I've known personally; the best I can say is that he appears to me to be a Mormon liberal -- that or just a weak politician, not guided by deep principles.

If Mitt becomes the Republican front-runner... I'm sitting this one out.

[LdSentinal]

I just see his campaign as Lamar Alexander's in 1996.

[JohnnyZ]

The lessons of the father have been learned, and learned well, by the son.

Aw, father and son liberals. How cute!!!

[Plutarch]

From the interviews I've seen on T.V. and heard on radio, Romney is very articulate. His Harvard Law credential innoculates him against the Dems stupid charge. The Dems would be reduced to using his religion against him.

After 12 years of Bush presidents that can't talk, I want a Republican president that doesn't make me wince when he opens his mouth.

[JohnnyZ]

Mitt Romney's a live one that slipped out of the Sunday Globe, flip flopping all over the table trailing scales and slime.

Remember, kids, it's lobsters that need to be cooked live, not this holy mormon mackerel.

[Torie]

Romney is exponentially a more effective speaker than Lamar, and more skillful in handling the high hard fast ones, with a curve in them. Watch and wait.

[Torie]

That's funny. Romney will be around to annoy you for some time, maybe a long time. Cheers.

[LdSentinal]

Well, he's certainly more able than Pataki. Romney does have charisma -- certainly more than Frist and George Allen.

[Torie]

Romney does have charisma -- certainly more than Frist and George Allen.

That has no informational content.

[LdSentinal]

Ok. George Allen has better hair than Mitt.

[Torie]

Frist and Allen lack that Duracell battery. But then, so do I. But then, my name isn't being mentioned much.

[JohnnyZ]

Yeah, yeah, I know you love him 'cause he's a lib, and I don't have a lot of confidence in getting someone good out of the crap that's heading into the GOP primaries, but Mitt has a serious credibility problem as an ineffective Massachusetts governor and party leader (you don't get points for trying and failing) and a dead-to-rights flip-flopper.

How is the guy going to be able to convince people that he'll nominate conservatives to the bench when they're getting mailings about his homosexual, gay marriage lobbyist liberal Democrat appointees in Massachusetts?

There's TONS of material to scare off social conservatives, and the "moderates" may get Rudy and/or McCain to choose from, next to whom Mitt is nobody.