Mitt Romney, 2012 Presidential Candidate - image muckrack.com
Mitt Romney, now officially the GOP 2012 Presidential Candidate, gave a well-delivered and well-crafted speech last night, closing the Republican Convention in Tampa and officially beginning his path to the Presidency. The full text of his speech is available at the Washington Post. In watching the network news coverage just prior to the final speeches during the 10 pm coverage, one was struck by the insistence that Romney “must humanize” himself and “connect with voters” – he did just that – to the point where Bob Schieffer, of CBS news had to be called several times on air – giving the impression that Romney’s delivery caused that member of the press to become speechless for a moment. Schieffer immediately began to focus on the speech given by actor-director, Clint Eastwood, who, according to the press narrative, was a huge mistake - Schieffer repeatedly said that Eastwood would be the “talk of the morning talk shows (referring, of course, to the network morning talk shows), and that no-one would be talking about Mitt Romney. It was as if, listening to the talking heads of the major networks and, of course, the cable news networks, that the individuals watching the same speakers, listening to the same speeches, would somehow give a whit about their opinion of events. Frankly, it was not without a bit of humor, that the reaction to the end of the Republican Convention was one that left those who have lost the tenants of their craft, grasping at straws.
Perhaps the best coverage of what individuals who are extremely vested in the process, was over at C-Span, after the speeches were delivered and the floor cleared, the network offered three call-in-lines – one for Romney Supports, one for Obama Supporters and one for Democrats. A call that came in from one of President Obama’s supports was extremely pointed, and spoke to the nature of this election and how it will proceed – (Paraphrasing) “Mitt Romney delivered a very good speech, but I’m a Democrat who will still vote for Obama. He did a good job, but Obama needs more time, it took Franklin D. Roosevelt three terms and World War II to right the nation, so it is going to take more than four years for Obama to fix the economy.” The speaker went on to say, of course, without starting another World War. This man’s statement, as well as the overwhelming support for Mitt Romney from the Independents phoning into the network (it goes without saying that the Romney Supporters would be – overjoyed) played out what one understands is happening in the nation – and for this reason, one has to understand, the course of events and Romney’s failure to fall into the orchestra pit (one of the networks talking heads), are why the press who are more than sympathetic to President Obama, are somewhat rattled and willing to and ready to search for anything, no matter how obscure, to negate the facts.
The Democrats will garner the votes of those who will vote for a Democrat, no matter that they have to craft excuses for failure, 41% of those die-hard party faithful voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980 – and one can anticipate that they will do so again. The percentage is the approximate number of registered Democrats who would never cross a party line. There are those that will be so driven they will go into nursing homes with Alzheimer units, and insure that an individual who cannot recognize their own family, votes for the Democrat on the ticket. (This was a personal experience of this blogger, as her mother, a Republican leaning independent, was found, unable to hold a pen, but being “helped” to vote for Al Gore in the 2000 election – the excuse by the Democrat operative – well, she may have been a registered Democrat and her vote should count. The final words before this daughter called security.) As a former Democrat, and fierce Independent, who was brought up in a politically mixed family, the single most important charge one has an American citizen is to vote, regardless of one’s choice, one has the responsibility to vote for the individual whom they feel has presented the best case, (or resume) for the job.
That is how an Independent casts their vote – that is the speech that Romney delivered which, had the entire proceeding been shown on the networks, one would be even more inclined, if possible, to cast their vote for Mitt Romney in November.
It is because Independents are unaffiliated and not beholden to any political party, and the fact that the numbers for both political parties are fairly evenly matched in terms of members, it stands to reason, that the Romney speech could have been horrid, and he would still prevail. The reasoning was made clear in Romney’s speech last night – and for the first time, the comparison was made by a candidate between President James Carter and President Barack Obama – both men were not prepared for the task at hand, as they had limited experience in the real world. What was left unsaid, was that both President Carter and President Obama subscribed to a more left of center political ideology than the majority of voters from all political spectrums – and they governed the nation into depression (fiscally and emotionally), by a combination of the lack of experience and their ideology. The fact that neither man intended that the consequences of their actions might cause stagnation, is a given. President Carter and President Obama truly believe that all people should have the same playing field, that Americans can and should be successful – they just, for whatever reason, cannot connect the dots or get the job done. Their failures have nothing to do with racism or party partisanship – it has everything to do with the reality that neither man was suited for the job. They both had successes as well, but their failures far outweighed those successes, and those who were breathing in the 1980’s understood that Ronald Reagan offered them experience – as someone who worked for a living, someone who ran a Governor’s office, and someone who spoke straight to the public. This former Democrat, who feared Regan at the time of the election, voted for the third party candidate in 1980 – in 1984, this Reagan Democrat, cast her vote for President Reagan as an Independent, because he had proven that he could right the ship of the economy, improve the lives of millions of American’s – all of this achieved with a very hostile press and no alternative news sources. There were no cable news networks, there were no radio talk shows, there was no internet – and yet, somehow Ronald Reagan was elected, not once, but twice, in a landslide – despite the narrative up to the end, that Carter was fine, the polls were close and Regan was a clown, lacking experience in foreign policy – all Carter needed was more time.
It didn’t work then, it will not work now.
From a point of view of someone who was never enamored of Governor Mitt Romney, and gave credit where credit was due out of a sense of having to deliver an opinion grounded in reality, over the course of the past three months, and researching Romney, one found that there are reasons why he has been unfairly misjudged – this Massachusetts Independent was unfairly judging Mitt Romney. Over the course of the past few months, it became apparent that Romney was not the stuffed shirt, the selfish “rich guy” who was being portrayed by the media, rather, someone who gave above and beyond in measure of both treasure and most importantly time to help strangers, neighbors in situation after situation, without looking for a photo opp. He did not take a salary as Governor, more women held positions of parity in Massachusetts and it was Romney’s doing. Those individuals came from both political parties, and the narrative of a failed Massachusetts under his leadership is patently false. It is a matter of public record that Romney reformed Massachusetts Schools which had high standards that were immediately thrown out once he was no longer Governor. His focus was on job creation and although he did have the advantage of being a Governor when jobs were plentiful in the rest of the nation, he managed the unthinkable by creating jobs in a state where both Employers and Employees had been leaving in droves. He worked across the aisle and he got the job done. It was not without a bit of criticism from individuals who are diehard Conservatives and those who are diehard Democrats – there will always be that division of party first, country second in that situation. That is what the founding fathers feared most about political parties –it was their druthers that we all be independent voters.
Therefore, what will be most interesting is to see how well the Obama Campaign delivers “we need a second term” because of “name an excuse, but it will likely be “the recession historically takes more time to get out of – just look at FDR!”. Yes, it did take FDR three terms as President and a World War to right the economy – however, it took Ronald Reagan with a different philosophy on management, less than one term to right the economy and build a military that inspired nations to back away from conflicts. It is not that Mitt Romney is Ronald Regan, although after last night’s speech that fallacy that he cannot connect with voters has been proven false, it is that Romney offers a better resume, and he has similar policies to Reagan – policies that are based on math – as Ryan might frame the narrative.
One cannot predict the outcome, as there are so many variances, but that said, this looks a lot like 1980 and the GOP has a Presidential Candidate with a running mate that are more than qualified to accept the task one hand. In watching speakers to the final speeches, what was present was a feeling of optimism, one that has not been present for some time – that optimism that the economy can improve, and that life will be less hard once Romney is President.
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