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Posted on 07/31/2014 7:42:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Nobody has ever rooted for that scrappy Romney kid to overcome the odds. Until, maybe, now.
Perhaps it says something about us that our most interesting presidential candidates swear they won't run for president. This is true of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and it's increasingly true of Mitt Romney.
As regular readers of this column know, I've never been much of a Romney booster. I've also expressed skepticism about the notion he would run again. But let's not let "a foolish consistency" cloud our judgment. There is reason to believe that a third try wouldn't be an absurd venture.
First, in the intervening years since 2012 — and on a range of issues, not the least of which is Russia — Romney has been proven right. And second — perhaps more important — one of the reasons so many observers viscerally disliked Romney was the cloying "goody-goody" quality that this fortunate son seemed to ooze. But do you know what the cure for that is? Losing.
That's right, Mitt Romney the scrappy underdog — the loser who's out to redeem himself — is a more attractive Mitt.
You know the term "lovable loser?" He should embrace it.
There's a reason why Rocky gets knocked out by "Clubber" Lang early on in Rocky III. The rest of the movie is about the comeback. This journey involves Rocky shedding the trappings of fame and wealth — and getting real.
Romney would similarly have to get real. No more phoniness. No more telling us what he thinks we want to hear. He would have to be utterly authentic, and he would have to show that losing caused him to encounter pain and reflection. (The good news is that the Netflix film, Mitt, already helped show this side of Romney.)
Could Romney III be like Rocky III? Maybe, if the narrative is true and convincing.
There's a reason the "comeback" trope resonates with us (aside from Rocky, it's a prevalent theme in almost every boxing movie, ranging from The Fighter to Cinderella Man). These tropes are timeless precisely because they tap into something that we intuitively understand about nobility, courage, and humility.
People like comebacks. We can identify with the guy or gal who is struggling to redeem themselves (and nobody has ever identified with Mitt Romney before).
Ironically, Romney is almost tailor-made to benefit from having lost before. What might be a devastating blow to most political figures — a blight on their résumé — actually transforms Romney into a more compelling candidate. Having struggled and stumbled is, for Romney, at least, a feature, not a bug. The same could be said for Hillary Clinton, who only became a compelling candidate in 2008 when she lost her front-runner status.
People who were hated the first time around — when their lives seemed charmed — can, by facing adversity and overcoming the odds, transform into sympathetic figures — heroes, even — that we actually root for (think: Robert Downey Jr.). Nobody has ever rooted for that scrappy Romney kid to overcome the odds. Until, maybe, now.
Someone who knows a thing or two about comebacks is Pat Buchanan. In fact, his new book is called The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.
During a recent discussion, I asked Buchanan about the prospects of Romney taking a page from the Nixon playbook. After all, George Romney figures prominently in the Nixon comeback story. "First, I admire that Romney is thinking of this," Buchanan told me during a recent podcast discussion, "and he ought to follow what's in his heart."
Buchanan, whose sister was a Romney adviser, believes that Romney should take a page from the Nixon handbook. Having lost to Kennedy in 1960, and then having lost the 1962 gubernatorial election in California, Nixon was assumed politically dead. But he was revived by working hard for other candidates — he worked hard for conservative Barry Goldwater in 1964 and backed liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller's candidacy in New York — just to name two of the many GOPers he hit the hustings for between 1962 and 1968.
"If I were Romney, there's no doubt I would do it," Buchanan (who thrice ran for president, himself) continued, adding, "But I'm not him."
Let's just say these are friendly environments for the Uniparty, and all their supporters, i.e. the Main Stream Media.
As long as everyone keeps holding their nose, there’s no reason to do anything about the stench.
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I live in the state of Florida which had the largest number of electoral votes ‘in contention’ in the entire national election. If Romney was going to fight, he would have done it here. It’s not like we hadn’t seen him fight in Florida before. We were bombarded night and day on TV, radio, and in mailings with every bad thing, real or imaginary Romney could think up to tar Newt Gingrich in the primary. Sometimes I had up to six to eight mailers a week full of lies, telling me Newt Gingrich was the cause of every imagined evil on earth.
When people brought up the lies Romney was spreading about Gingrich in Florida, right here on FreeRepublic, Romney people said, Romney’s such a fighter, just think how he’ll go after Obama! I waited weeks to see that “fighter” show up. He never did. He had every opportunity to flood the airwaves on Obama as he had done with Gingrich. He could easily have reminded people of all the onerous things Obama had done starting with the roundly hated Obamacare. Any conservative would have torn into Obama, Obamacare and every other thing he has done. But as we all know very well, Romney was not about to go after his own grandchild, Obamacare. Socialist Romney was not about to try to make any liberal or liberal idea look bad. He only opposes conservatives.
Nothing on radio about what Obama was doing to tear down this country, or its military. He flat out lied about his position on the border and when he spoke in Florida, he had already started the switch back to his pro-amnesty position. (Etch-a-sketch) There was an occasional bland, milquetoast TV ad, about his vision for the future and if I got any mailers at all, they were just as nondescript as the TV ads. Even if Romney thought Obama was ‘in just a little over his head,’ he said nothing about how he would be better. Just vague terms about being a businessman. No reminders of how bad Obama was. No attempt to contrast himself at all. Not even a mention about the economy.
You have to give the people a reason to vote for you. Romney never did. Romney supporters need to face the fact that Romney lost Florida. Once that was mission accomplished, he turned tail and ran out of the state, knowing full well he wasn’t going to win the election. An insurance policy for the socialists, he had done his job. Just like McCain before him.
Now you snookered supporters have to save face. OH it’s not the fact that the liberal (r) Romney had no intention of running against Obama. Just because people saw that he refused to run against Obama and wouldn’t come out and vote for him anyway was just mean. Just because Romney refused to go against anything Obama did was no reason not to vote for him. Conservatives are just mean and selfish. /s
Go cry to the UniParty. You get no sympathy for your non competing candidate here.
He sucked, end of story.
What’s the definition of insanity, again?
That’s pretty good.
Those missiles are sure to pop anybody’s balloon, even Mitt’s. Were you a Gunner in the military, or do you just know something about weaponry for combat?
The unit was deactivated at least 15 years ago. The motto for 6/56 ADA is "Night Hides Not", as it was originally a searchlight battalion in WWI.
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