The Unbearable Lightness of Being Mitt Romney

           In politics and in elections there is really no such thing as a perfect candidate.  We are all human, we all make mistakes and we all have our vices.  Mitt Romney is certainly not a perfect candidate.  He has many fundamental flaws, some blatant, others lurking beneath the surface.
           At the top of the list is Romney's demeanor and his natural charisma, or the lack thereof.  All of the truly great Presidents were people who knew how to talk to people.  In recent times we've seen good examples with Obama, Reagan, and George W. Bush.  It's not always about oratory ability where Barack Obama excels, nor Bush being the kind of person many working class Americans would "like to have a beer with."  It also goes without saying that Ronald Reagan wasn't called "The Great Communicator" for nothing.  The problem with Romney is that we haven't seen anything like this coming from him.  When he speaks he doesn't inspire confidence.  When he tries his hand at humor he often comes off as stilted.  To many Americans he feels as fake as a piece of plastic.  Sometimes you don't know what to think when he once asked "Who let the dogs out?"
            In a way, everyone has a story.   When it comes to Presidents this is even more important.  Barack Obama captivated America with his middle class, multiracial and multiethnic upbringing, he was something new, something exotic to many.  Mitt Romney is the son of another wealthy man who was involved in politics, his father George Romney.  His basic qualifier for President, as he has put it is his wealth and success in business.  Romney is not the wealthiest person to run for President.  Ross Perot was a multi-billionaire when he ran for President. Wealth alone is no reason to put someone on a pedestal nor is it a reason to demean them. There is nothing exciting or compelling in his background.  What greatness is there in Mitt Romney?
             In politics lately it seems that there is only room for winners.  Only victory is remembered, and there are no points for second place.  Most people who run for President run on their previous accomplishments, one victory building atop another.  In our history I cannot name a candidate who has run as far from his record as Mitt Romney has.  Recently the Supreme Court upheld Obama's signature piece of legislation often derided as Obamacare. Romney has jumped on the GOP bandwagon in criticizing the law, but the irony is that the architect for Obamacare was Romney himself when he passed the same type of law in Massachusetts when he was governor.  He claims that he doesn't agree with it as a solution for all states but lets be serious, in any other environment he would have made this his keystone accomplishment.  Without his accomplishments he has to fall back to his business background yet again.
               There are times that politicians often seem to be more like gymnasts in regards to policy and flexibility.  A good politician tries to hold a wide position that allows him room to maneuver through various issues.  Ronald Reagan once said that "Politics is the world's second oldest profession which often bears great resemblance to the first."  Mitt Romney has elevated political gymnastics to an art form.  Politicians are allowed to change their minds on issues.  But Romney seems to have a pattern of just saying what people want to hear.  While this is a common feature among politicians he doesn't mask this very well.  His positions on issues seem to be deliberately based on the nature of just who he is talking to at that particular time.  Romney has taken both sides of many issues such as support for the auto bailouts, gay rights, Planned Parenthood and Abortion.  There has been plenty of criticism of Obama for his policies as can be expected.  Romney's other problem here is that he doesn't give any specifics on what he'll actually do if elected.  Obama is bad and wrong and Romney's gonna change things but he's not telling us how he's going to do it.  He wants to repeal and replace Obamacare without telling us what he wants to replace it with.
               No matter how well you can maneuver sometimes you have to face the truth, and sometimes the truth really hurts.  During the 2008 campaign Barack Obama was faced with the incendiary remarks of his Pastor, Jeremiah Wright.  Obama did not try to hide from the issue, he faced it head on with a bold speech on American race relations that very likely saved his campaign.  Mitt Romney has come under attack lately regarding his actions as the head of Bain Capital.  The accusation made by the Obama camp is that Bain was a company that outsourced American jobs.  Bain is accused of taking profitable companies and offshoring them for more profits or loading them down with debt.  Romney's recent excuse is that he was off running the 2002 Winter Olympics, when the SEC documents clearly show that he was still President and CEO of Bain.  His latest, very weak excuse is something called "retroactive retirement".  Offshoring and the problems related to globalization are the greatest threat to the long term economic security of the middle class.  Bain's embracing of outsourcing has sadly become standard business practice. Ted Kennedy used Romney's time at Bain as a hammer and nailed Romney to Bain during the 1994 Senatorial Campaign. Romney has also been very silent about his tax returns, a strange thing considering the idea of releasing them was pioneered by his father. In the end, Romney's response to these facts just isn't good enough, not for the highest office in the land.
             For many years since his election the Right has tried to label Barack Obama as an elitist. From his Harvard education, his appearance, to his oratory bearing, and lastly even how he spends his vacation time he is accused of being a liberal elitist. The Romney campaign really hasn't gone after this angle because while Obama may seem like an elitist Mitt Romney himself is an elitist.  He is a rich man that started out as the son of another rich man.  The policies of the past 30 years have made it easier for the wealthy,  like Romney to keep their wealth and expand it without nearly as much work as it took to obtain it in the first place.  Like Obama, Romney is also a Harvard graduate with a degree in law and another in business.  Like Dick Cheney, Romney also got a lot of draft deferments during the Vietnam War.  He was supposedly a missionary in France for most of the war, learned to speak fluent French and is still very fond of France. We all know how much the Republicans and the Far Right just love France.  Romney also spent $75,000 dollars on a horse that does ballet that you may get a chance to see at the 2012 Olympics.  At a recent television appearance Ann Romney wore a t-shirt with a $1,000 dollar price tag.  There have been pictures "leaked" from the Romney campaign showing him fueling up the campaign bus or doing laundry but they all come off as being staged just to make him look like a normal person.  It has been mentioned that when he shows up to events wearing blue jeans he somehow still looks better than everyone else in the room.
             Right now Mitt Romney is also stuck in a rut, the same rut that John McCain was in when he ran in 2008.  There is a serious "excitement deficit".  Many conservatives are going to be holding their noses when they vote for him.  The only thing he has going for him as a Republican is that he isn't Obama.  The problem is that it often takes more to win than just being against something or someone else.  John McCain tried to change the paradigm when he tapped Sarah Palin as a running mate.  Regardless of the end consequences McCain's choice brought much needed life back into his campaign.  Without Palin he would have likely done far worse on Election Day.  When it comes to a running mate Romney is going to have to make a choice.  Will he stand up to the Far Right and the Tea Party and go with someone more moderate, or will he court them for fear of losing them?  With such close electoral margins these days, being against Obama just isn't good enough.  John Kerry tried this angle in 2004 against George W. Bush....we all know how that turned out.
              It often doesn't seem that Romney didn't win the nomination as much as he survived it.  It's no secret that the GOP nomination process over time often involves standing in line, last election's second place winner often becomes the next nominee.  While there were many others vying for the nomination they all fell by the wayside.  Sometimes, it was personal reasons such as in the case of Herman Cain, his downfall was due to the revelation of a very long term extramarital affair. In many other the other cases Romney merely outspent his competition, often spending more than all of his competitors combined.  This time though money isn't going to be enough , just ask former California candidate for Governor, Meg Whitman.who spent $144 million dollars of her own money and lost.
              Since the beginning of the campaign season I have looked at the GOP and wondered about the field that was offered this year.  It seems that many of the smart people in the GOP decided to sit this election cycle out.  Where is Bobby Jindal?  Where is Chris Christie?  Why didn't they run?  There are many reasons, the rise of the Tea Party, the stubborn mendacity of the GOP in Congress, or the lingering distaste for the Bush administration.  Sadly it seems we got stuck with the rest.  And in the dogpile that was the GOP primaries emerged....Mitt Romney.  Is Mitt Romney good enough?   That's for the American people to decide in November.

Left and Right

Right now American politics is a competition between the incompetent and the insane.

The "Left" as it is in the Democratic Party is right now incompetent in almost every way.  You need only look at the government in our nation’s capital to see it.  How Marion Berry remains in office all these years truly boggles the mind. The bumbling of Reid and Pelosi shows just what "career politicians"  have done for us.  In regards to Obama, his greatest mistake was repeating many of his predecessor's policies.  Obama's other big mistake was health care reform, while good intentioned was a waste of political capital that could have been better used to address the systemic problems that plague us. To the dismay of Obama's most fervent supporters in the last election has been the most startling revelation regarding the President:  that he is at his core just another politician. It is funny that many of the same Democrats who rail against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan today were among the ones that voted for it yesterday.  It is sad that in the ascension of Reagan the term "liberal" became a dirty word, even sadder when you compare classical Liberalism and Marxism and find how much different they really are. Want more fun with Democrats?  Google "C Jack Ellis" and have a big laugh. You cannot govern or negotiate from a position of weakness, yet the Left keeps on trying.

The "Right" as it stands can be summed up in one word:  insane.  The undercurrent has always been around always waiting to flourish.  We last saw this manifested in the 1950's with the "Red Scare" led by men like Joseph McCarthy under the precept of "Un-American Activites" where people tried making other forms of speech and thought illegal. In 50's America the disease was fear as it is today.  Back then it was fear of the Soviets, today it is fear of foreigners, science and even fear of education and critical thinking.  The Right has declared open war on society itself and the institutions that maintain it by engaging in class warfare and divisive rhetoric.  Somehow they have been lead to believe that America was founded solely as a "Christian Nation" by people who valued religious freedom after many of them came here fleeing religious persecution.  They have also been lead to believe that America was founded on the concept on unregulated capitalism when the words "capitalism" and "free market" cannot be found in the Constitution that they revere almost as much as the Bible. Today the concepts of compromise and moderation make as much sense as the do to a toddler with a temper tantrum. The greatest hypocrisy of the Right today is that they care more about things that exist on paper like the Constitution and corporations than they do flesh and blood human beings.  They care more for a collection of cells in a woman's womb than the child it may eventually become.   Nothing today can conjure their wrath quite like showing them their own hypocrisy. 

The disintegration of the right has also hurt the left in unexpected ways.  The debate between the two has been reduced to useless partisan warfare where no one really gets ahead.  It has led to the deadlock in our government that paralyzed the entire system.  Today the promises made to the lobbyists of yesterday are more critical than the needs of Americans today.

Sometimes, we can only be as good as our competition makes us.       

Job Interviews

           For my first post here I thought I would talk about something that has become very relevant to my life at this time:  job interviews.  Like millions of Americans I am also jobless and looking for work.  I have been going through the job interview ritual a lot lately.  It has come to mind though that it often seems that the interview and everything involved with it has nothing to do with the actual job itself.  

           Lets start with the outfit.  It's usually something formal.  For guys it's a standard suit and tie.  It doesn't matter if this is what you're going to be wearing at work, this is what's usually expected.  Of course in  many business environments it might as well be a uniform.  I hate suits personally.  They are stuffy and uncomfortable.  The tie limits you ability to turn your head.   Also I have yet to discover an ideal way to hang up my jacket so that it doesn't get wrinkled. 

           It gets much worse when you get to the actual interview.  Sometimes it's just with one guy.   Other times it seems like you're getting interviewed by a committee.  Then come the questions.  Sometimes you get questions like "What is your greatest weakness?"  But you're not supposed to tell them that you have a hidden obsession with Jello pudding, you have to lie and really give them a strength that's really disguised as a weakness.  Or they'll ask for an example of something you did in certain situations that may not have anything to do with the job.  They claim that its a way to assess your thinking process but it feels like they are just screwing with you.  Sadly, the interviewer has license to say whatever he wants.  If he somehow insults you you basically have to sit there and take it.  

           You almost have to become a different person during the interview.  You put on a fake smile to go with your fake outfit to complement your fake stories.  In the end you might get the job or you might not.  You probably won't get any feedback or have any idea what exact went wrong.  In our online world consider yourself lucky if you get a phone call, expect some kind of stock email or a vague announcement on the company website.

            I suppose it could be worse.  But right now I don't know how.