Posted on 12/14/2007 5:06:25 AM PST by Kaslin
Pretty much every election year since I can remember, a complaint has arisen that goes like this: "Why are we stuck with these awful choices? In this vast country of highly successful individuals, why don't any of the best people run for president?" Some years evoked more howls than others, and admittedly, 1976 really did present two underperformers, as did 1996. So let's pause to notice the fact that this year we have some exemplary choices.
Fred Thompson is an excellent man who is running a refreshingly substantive campaign. John McCain has demonstrated not just personal courage (which is admirable enough) but the courage of his convictions. And Rudy Giuliani achieved a seemingly impossible task in transforming America's largest city.
But no one running is more impressive than Mitt Romney. It was his speech on religion in American life that caused me to take another look at him. Until then, I confess that I saw him as a sort of robo-candidate: smooth, articulate, but perhaps a little opportunistic and possibly even insincere. The religion speech cast a new light on him.
The question as to whether someone's religious convictions are a fit subject for public scrutiny is not as simple as it sounds. It's too pat to say, "There should be no religious test for public office and there's the end of it." If a candidate were, say, a fundamentalist Mormon like Warren Jeffs, or a Scientologist, that would be an obstacle. But the mainstream Mormon Church has enough of a track record in producing excellent Americans that the particularities of its doctrine are by now a matter of purely scholarly interest. No one thought to raise objections to Mormonism when Mo Udall ran for president, nor even when Mitt's father, George, made a bid. The Senate majority leader is a Mormon and this fact causes not a flicker of interest on the part of his colleagues. Besides, Mitt Romney served as governor of Massachusetts. If anyone felt Joseph Smith's brooding presence during that time, they haven't mentioned it.
What Romney's religion speech demonstrated was not so much his devotion to his own faith (though he declined to run away from it) as his understanding and embrace of America's civic religion. In his telling, that civic religion amounts to a commitment to religious liberty as well as to broadly shared religious values. "It is important to recognize," he said, "that while differences in theology exist between the churches in America, we share a common creed of moral convictions. And where the affairs of our nation are concerned, it's usually a sound rule to focus on the latter -- on the great moral principles that urge us all on a common course. Whether it was the cause of abolition, or civil rights, or the right to life itself, no movement of conscience can succeed in America that cannot speak to the convictions of religious people." Romney went on to paint America as the golden mean between the empty cathedrals of Europe and the violent jihadists of the Islamic world. It was a masterful performance.
But then Romney has been masterful in everything he has attempted. It is not insignificant that this cum laude JD/MBA graduate of Harvard guided Bain Capital to become a hugely successful private equity investment firm and rescued Bain & Company from financial collapse. Romney was brought in to save the 2002 Winter Olympics when the games were mired in scandal and $379 million in debt. Romney was able to turn the situation around completely so that the games actually turned a $100 million profit instead. (He also gave back his salary.) That's not slick, that's substance.
When Mitt Romney took office as governor of Massachusetts, the state had a $1.2 billion deficit. Four years later it was in surplus. He boasts that fourth and eighth graders in Massachusetts achieved the highest scores in the nation in reading and math, though they were doing so before he became governor as well. But his program of assessment, merit pay for good teachers, English immersion and a focus on math and science may have helped keep them at the top.
It is difficult to find any significant weakness in Romney. He is refreshingly articulate, exceedingly well prepared and self-disciplined, clearly an excellent manager with both private and government experience, happily married with a large, supportive family, and well within the mainstream of conservatism on every major issue. His nomination would not divide the base.
He is just the sort of candidate people complain that they never get.
That’s not an endorsement by any means .
Rush spoke favorably of Romney’s “victim speech” as well, but that does not equal an endorsement .
[as his understanding and embrace of America’s civic religion. In his telling, that civic religion amounts to a commitment to religious liberty as well as to broadly shared religious values.]
Now actually, this contains a scary thought - that there is a “civic religion”. When one examines this closely, this is really a call for a state religion, the “civic religion” that is too bland, too mediocre, too pureed, to be worth discussion. This would be the religion of politicians like Romney, who are too afraid to run openly on their own religion, so must hush it up behind a veil of bafflegab.
Civic religion, the religion of the polite elite who would rule you, bland and mediocre without substance and heaven forbid there be a lick of moral judgment contained within. Why just about any blackguard nincompoop could run under the banner of that state religion. Ooooops, I guess I’ve just made myself a bigot against the civic religion of the state.
Who are you talking about?
Since when is the pride that you think you can lift yourself up by the bootstraps to become a god, or are already a "god-in-embryo"--since when has that become a "virtue?" (I must have missed that in "character class"...maybe all the schools can start introducing that right away under a Mitt educational plan for our nation)
BTW, Rush had positive comments on Romney's performance in the Iowa debate. "Right on, Right on..." he said while playing Romney's response where he vowed to rid Government of overlapping bureaucracies and other wasteful spending. Rush liked Thompson's remarks, too, but dissed (my interpretation) Huckabee for his Rodney King like (my take on Rush's thoughts) moment where Huckster wanted to bring Conservatives and Liberals together in his administration.
Yes, Rush has been hard on the Huckster and with good reason .
I think Buchanan was taken by the speech , but it will be hard to pin Buchanan down to supporting a certain candidate .
You’ve always got to start harping about religion when you’re losing the rational argument, don’t you?
Do you even realize how profoundly you are embarrassing yourself?
-—Sheriff Joe Arpaio - Maricopa County, Arizona:
I like him, Arpaio said of Mitt Romney. Hes a man of principle, of good character. He did a great job in Massachusetts and I feel hes going to make a great president. Im sure the governor believes in my philosophy too, Arpaio said. He sure would not be asking for my endorsement if he didnt believe in what Im doing.-—
That calls for a demonstration!
MITT, MITT, MITT! MITT, MITT, MITT! MITT, MITT, MITT!
For what it's worth to the adamantaly-opposed-to-Romney-crowd, Margaret Thatcher a little over a year ago gave an approving nod to Mitt Romney ( http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/10/15/230126.shtml?s=ic ).I posted a comment on that thread -- #16 -- and perhaps more on the same thread and haven't changed my mind to date. Of course, I like other candidates, including Tancredo, Thompson, Hunter, and will support ANY Republican candidate over the slime the dems put forth, even McCain whom I personally despise.
My view remains, namely: If we await the PERFECT conservative candidate, the dem socialists will reign for decades. Finally, should anyone already have the irrationally charged slings and arrows pointed at my backside, don't bother. I'm entitled to register an opinion on FR without getting hit that way and won't respond in any case. Debating policy is quite another matter, but we can still offer rational discourse rather than emotional attacks that have become quite prevalent of late.
Regards . . . Penny
yawn. :-)
Mona Charen explicitly asks why are we often stuck with awful choices? Well, Hunter is a man of principle and accomplishment. If you disagree with his positions: Fine. If you think he has no real chance: Fine. But to go hunting for outstanding candidates and not to mention him just seems weird to me.
Here's the next line of that debate question:
Cooper: Is that a change in your position...Romney: Yes, I didn't think it would work. I didn't think "don't ask/don't tell" would work. That was my -- I didn't think that would work. I thought that was a policy, when I heard about it, I laughed. I said that doesn't make any sense to me.
And you know what? It's been there now for, what, 15 years? It seems to have worked.
His overwhelming lust for power and lack of convictions in favor of political expediency make him a poster boy for what everyone hates about politics.
I can tell you this, if he is the nominee, I can see myself voting for him, quite easily, as compared to, say, voting for Rudy. And that might be the bottom line.
You may have a point, then again, you may not.
Governor Mitt Romney, ... insisted yesterday that he would not back off his 2002 campaign pledge to uphold Massachusetts abortion laws, saying, I take my promises very seriously.
Comparing his past to what he promises today, I'm not convinced he takes his promises seriously at all. Here's just a few previous "promises":
My hope is that, after this election, it will be the moderates of both parties who will control the Senate, not the Jesse Helmses. - Mitt Romney
In my view, it is not a good idea to go into a [Contract With America] like what was organized by the Republican Party in Washington, laying out a whole series of things which the party said, These are the things were going to do. I think thats a mistake. - Mitt Romney
Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. Im not trying to return to Reagan-Bush. - Mitt Romney
I remember in my earliest political experience my father fighting to keep the John Birch Society from playing too strong a role in the Republican Party. He walked out of the Republican National Convention in 1964, when Barry Goldwater said, Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Because he saw that as a tacit approval of the effort the John Birch Society was making to influence the Republican Party. I think that extremists who would force their views on the party and try to shape the party are making a mistake. - Mitt Romney
We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts. I support them. I wont chip away at them. I believe they help protect us and provide for our safety. - Mitt Romney
Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts. These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people. - Mitt Romney
I dont think [The Brady Bills mandated waiting period] will have a massive effect on crime but I think it will have a positive effect. - Mitt Romney
I dont line up with the NRA. - Mitt Romney
Ive been a hunter pretty much all my life. - Mitt Romney
I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I have, since the time when my mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, we should sustain and support it. I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice. - Mitt Romney
I think it would be a positive thing to have women have the choice of taking morning-after pills .I would favor having it available. - Mitt Romney
There will be children born to same-sex couples, and adopted by same-sax couples, and I believe that there should be rights and privileges associated with those unions and with the children that are part of those unions. - Mitt Romney
All people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation. - Mitt Romney
Those who take the time to look at his actual record in Massachusetts can see it is quite conservative. The rest, apparently, are content to rely on MSM soundbites and DNC talking points.
In this case, ignorance is not bliss. In case you are still in the dark about MITT.
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