Mitt Romney

 

I was going to talk about him last week, but this 9/11 thing interrupted.  We all remember that, don’t we?  Anyhow.  I got an email from a GOP fundraiser claiming that “we don’t need another Mitt Romney”.  Hello, SPAM FOLDER. 

Romney is currently a US Senator from Utah; the other is Mike Lee, who also went to Brigham Young (BYU) and leans Libertarian (or so the Interweb claims).  His prior stints were Governor of Massachusetts from 2002-2006 and the Republican candidate for President in 2012, unsuccessfully running against Barack Obama.  He’s the last Republican candidate I voted for, for President.

Son of Michigan governor and AMC (the car company that gave us the Javelin, Gremlin and Pacer) President George Romney, he was born in Michigan and served time in France in the late ‘60s as a missionary for the Mormons.   There he learned to speak French.  He came back, finished college at BYU, then went to Harvard Law School & Business School, and became a business consultant with Bain.   His track record is mostly positive, though with some missteps here and there.

As governor of Massachusetts his major accomplishment was a state health insurance program which closely resembles what Obama got enacted nationally:  RomneyCare (see also: ObamaCare).  Though a Mormon and a Republican he kept away from being too right-wing and Jesus-y, an important issue in highly liberal Massachusetts.  The last MA governor to run for President was our old friend Michael No-cock-is, who was easily defeated by George H.W. Bush, in the first election I voted in, 1988, the only one in which the candidate I voted for actually won (!).    

As senator from Utah he’s the only GOP senator to vote FOR Trump’s conviction after the House impeached the Orange Fuhrer.   I suppose he might have done so to win favor from Utah Democrats and independents, knowing his GOP comrades in the Senate – including my prior favorite, Rand Paul – would all vote to acquit.  I like to think he really believed Trump should be convicted, and voted accordingly.  He’s also marched with Black Lives Matter.   As a frequent nemesis of Donald Trump, he’s earned some scorn from fellow Republicans, but respect and admiration from Democrats and independents. 

By now I’ve gotten fairly jaded about politics, especially about Republicans.   Sadly, some degree of compromise and pragmatism is necessary to get things done in the real world, so it’s hard to consider any politician as being truly conscientious and principled – except at the extremes of the left wing (Bernie Sanders, Paul Wellstone, Ocasio-Cortez) or right wing (any particularly noxious right-wing, Jesus-y Republican).  And with Trump as President, too many Republicans seem to feel that they have to swallow their distaste for him and support him unconditionally.  Now, more than ever, it’s hard to identify any Republican as really being decent. Having said that, Mitt Romney strikes me as the GOP senator who might most plausibly be considered honest and principled.   In fact, in terms of strength of character and integrity, Romney has likewise surpassed Rand Paul in my regard. 

Getting back to his JD/MBA.  I tried doing that back when I was a senior at UMCP applying for law school, but what I was told is that while law schools will take applicants right out of college (about 50% of my colleagues at GMUSL seemed to be recent college graduates, and my former boss Jerry was only a year out of UPenn before going to USC Law) business schools preferred applicants with some prior real world experience.  The other deal is that Romney had a good background at Bain, but also as governor of Massachusetts.  So it struck me that here was a guy who knew what business ideas and concepts translated to politics and which did not.  The main problem otherwise successful business comrades have when they switch to politics is that they don’t realize that many subordinates can’t simply be fired for failing to follow orders – employment at will is not the way the federal bureaucracy works.  And if anyone could understand this, it would be Romney.  So we have a guy who is (A) successful in the private sector, (B) successful GOP governor in a Democratic state (like Gary Johnson in New Mexico – in fact, Romney considered endorsing Johnson in 2016, he obviously couldn’t do so in 2012 when they were running against each other) and (C) someone who has character and integrity. 

I’m not a resident of Utah, so I’m not in a position to vote for him as senator, though I’d hope he’d follow Nixon’s cue and run for President again notwithstanding his previous loss.  In fact, I’d happily vote for him over Biden if he was the Republican candidate, just as I did in 2012 over Gary Johnson, who for me is the strongest Libertarian candidate to run for President.  Of course, that’s not the situation.  I suppose the best we can hope is that he’ll take the party nomination in 2024.  

We’ll see, won’t we?