Voting for Romney

It must be hard to be Mitt Romney. One wonders if he knows what he believes. I, for one, am not a person who would ever hold against him the fact that a politician changed his mind. I think that those folks who so are idealistic, so set in their ways that compromise is a non starter are destined to be failures in the political world. Under our system compromise is necessary.

Mitt Romney does appear to be a man caught in the middle. The fact is that even when he says things that in the past a Conservative candidate would never say out loud he cannot apologize. If GW Bush was caught with the 47 percent statement he would have said that was not what he meant and importantly the Conservatives would have understood. They trusted him.

Mitt Romney cannot even backtrack his most egregious statements for fear that the Conservatives will think he again is not being faithful. Yesterday I wrote about Romney's only hope would be to repudiate some of the more Conservative criticism of his candidacy. Any other candidate with a true conservative nature could do that with a wink and a nod and his followers on the far right would have understood the necessity. This candidate with his pro choice, pro gay rights, Romneycare past cannot do so.

It really is remarkable that Romney has come this far in the process with Republican backing. The fact is this. Mitt Romney is a traditional Northeast Republican. He belives in business and that what is good for business is good for the country. He also despite his protestations to the opposite is not a conservative on social issues. Now he might think those wanting abortions, or who cannot afford healthcare, or who are homosexual are beneath him but his record in Massachusetts shows that he really has no big issues with them having these freedoms.

Romney is like Rudolph wearing that uncomfortable mud nose to keep the red nose from showing. It makes him talk funny and it is hard to understand him.

I love Joe Scarborough and value and agree with his opinions much of the time. In this case I disagree with him. Romney, I feel, would have this race in the bag if he had won as the Massachusetts Republican that he was. The fact is that what is hurting Romney, at least with the Independents he needs to sway, are his positions that he is giving lip service to the far right with.

Of course without this dog and pony show Romney would have never got the nomination. Demographically and dogmatically the Republican party has a problem, and were it not for gerrymandering Congressional districts this would be even more noticeable today than it has yet been. The day is coming and coming soon however where the truth will not be avoidable.

Now contrast Mitt Romney with his father. George Romney the former Governor of Michigan. A man who worked his way up to become President of American Motors. A man who, as his wife Lenore said in a campaign interview, was on welfare or assistance when he was young. George Romney when running for reelection as Governor touted his emphasis on public education, environmental protections, and jobs programs to help our young people find their way. In short George Romney was the candidate that Mitt was in Massachusetts and should be now. Of course George had the life experience that Mitt never did, he knew what struggle was.

This is a fatal flaw for Romney. When he speaks forthrightly about having to sell some stock to get through college we laugh but Mitt is being honest. Look being rich is not a problem to getting elected. FDR, JFK, these men were incredibly wealthy and never worked a day in their lives. Still Romney might be the first major party candidate to campaign publicly stressing Scrooge McDuck policies.

In his Sixty Minutes interview Sunday Romney stated that he felt it was fair that he paid 14 percent in taxes in 2011 while an average worker might pay more because a low tax rate on the wealthy encouraged investment and growth. Mitt, who passed Romneycare with an emphasis on the savings that would be earned by preventive care and less emergency room usage, actually said that with the repeal of Obamacare that emergency rooms were always there for those who did not have health insurance.

I do not think Mitt Romney is a bad person. Though if the election lasts much longer I might begin to. I simply feel he might well not know who he is anymore, the task of what he thinks, what he is supposed to think, and what he used to think, the task of keeping those all straight is more than he or perhaps any candidate could navigate.

Look over the videos and statements of George Romney in 1966. And then join me in voting for Romney for President. George Romney that is.