Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Romney Runs the Table


By Alan Caruba

Mitt Romney won the Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, and Pennsylvania Republican primary elections yesterday. A clean sweep or, as they say in the game of billiards, he ran the table.

On November 12, 2011, I wrote a commentary, “If Not Romney, Who?” noting that, even then, the Rasmussen polls all indicated that Romney was the candidate that voters were most comfortable with and whom they believed would be most competitive with President Obama.

I said, “Yes, I think he will get the GOP nomination. Yes, I would vote for him.”

It is clear that a majority of Republican voters have concluded the same thing and, in fact, have now assured Mitt Romney the party’s nomination. It is important to keep in mind that these were individual votes cast by men and women who were not persuaded by all the arguments leveled against Romney.

Individual voters, not men or women, not Hispanics or younger voters, not blocks of voters that can be conveniently identified, but individuals who had listened to the debates, taken the measure of a large number of candidates, and concluded that Romney had the values, the character, and most importantly the experience and judgment to be the next President of the United States.

They don’t care that he is a wealthy man. So were Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, George H.W. and George W. Bush. Wealth has never disqualified a man from holding office and, if you think about it, George Washington was a very wealthy man in his era.

Wealth is just one measure of success, but the values and ideas a candidate brings to the race are the deciding factors. Frequently overlooked in Mitt Romney’s case is the fact that, as a Republican, he won the governorship of a very Democrat State, Massachusetts. Recall, too, that Ronald Reagan won with a significant percentage of Democrats who found Jimmy Carter wanting in his first and last term.

In so many ways, Mitt Romney reminds me of Ronald Reagan. Reagan had lost his first bid to win the Republican nomination to Gerald Ford. He ran again and won. Romney has some of the same character traits that Reagan had and Romney has visibly improved his communications skills, delivering some excellent speeches.

The contrast between Romney and Obama is huge. Republicans know that and many voters from both parties have concluded that. In some very real ways, this is a repeat of the Carter-Reagan race, a failed President versus a man who has served successfully as the Governor of a State, working well with a legislature dominated by the other party.

Mostly, though, the contrast can be seen between Obama who does not like America and Romney who does.

America will reclaim its destiny, its exceptualism, on November 6, 2012. It will elect Mitt Romney.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

11 comments:

Ronbo said...

Vote for RINO Romney!

It's IMPORTANT!

Unknown said...

Go Romney, America as we love it is riding on him now. Are you sure Reagan lost to McCain? When was that.

Schism said...

If Mitt Romney winds up being the Republican nominee for president in the upcoming national election, I will get my butt out the door and vote for him. "Anybody but Obama."

However, having said that, their are two really disturbing problems. The first is the idea that Romney will somehow have a relatively easy job winning the election because everybody is sick of Obama. Sorry, that just won't fly. In spite of the demonstrably incompetent way Barack Obama has handled the responsibilities of the office of President, 50% of the country still approves of him. To believe that "even my mother could beat Obama" in the light of those numbers is simply wishful thinking. Note that this is before the Democratic political machine has even begun to seriously work on discrediting Romney.

Secondly, even if Romney is elected, he's shown very little (if any) enthusiasm for the tremendous job of significantly cutting down the size of government, or seriously reducing federal expenditures. These two related projects are absolutely critical for the survival of the United States as we know it...but Romney has been lukewarm, at best, in his attitudes towards them. Face it, please. Romney is and has been a big government man for his entire career. He knows, deep down inside, that if there is a serious problem facing the nation, government is or has the answer, which is exactly the attitude that has gotten us into this mess in the first place.

Thirdly, admittedly of less importance historically, the MSM and the Democratic machine have had Romney as their favorite since very early in the campaign. [sarcasm]This, of course, is because they believe that Mr. Romney is the best possible GOP candidate to solve the ills of the nation.[sarcasm off]

You, yourself, have noted that the modern MSM constitutes a fully partisan and solidly activist arm of the Democratic party, boosting and supporting it in every way they can to the point of lying about factual events and making up "facts" when reality doesn't support the party. The fact that they accept and support Romney as the best that conservatives have to offer as presidential material rings alarm bells all over the back of my mind.

I remain terribly fearful for my country.

Alan Caruba said...

@Unknown. My bad. I corrected the text. It was against Gerald Ford the first time.

Alan Caruba said...

@Schism. Romney has been talking about Obama's failure and the need to reduce the size of government and the debt. These have been major themes and account, I believe, for his strong showing.

Alan Caruba said...

@Ronbo. When I hear you say vote for Romney, I know there is hope for victory!!!!! :-)

Ronbo said...

@Alan:

I said many months ago that if the GOP ran an old yellow dog against Obama in 2012, the mutt had my support and vote. Romney is not the Republican candidate I want to run against Obama, but he's gonna be the one on the ballot.

I just hope Romney is prepared to be Lincoln if he does win in November, because the Left is gonna go absolutely APE if they lose control of the House, Senate and the presidency, which looks highly possible at this time.

LarryOldtimer said...

Romney will be, IMHO, a fine president. He is very intelligent, a past master of capitalism, a "stick to business" man, and far more a Ronald Reagan than anyone else who was running.

Now it is time to put all differences behind us, and greatly support Romney for president of the US.

I personally don't believe that Romney is all that much "RINO" at all. Can't make great changes until actually elected.

Dave's Daily Day Dream said...

To get a good report, with data, on the liberal press' preferences, go here:

Full “Media Bias 101" section: http://www.mrc.org/media-bias-101/media-bias-101-what-journalists-really-think-and-what-public-thinks-about-them

I believe they have a fair and accurate assessment of the problem.

Lime Lite said...

Anyone but Obama!

Carlos Cavero said...

Dems & Republicans are like WWF wrestlers- They just pretend they fight but no matter who rules he country, the path will always be the same. Now choose the lesser evil, dont let Obama know we never swallowed his 'Change' thing. Putting a Black face to he new World Order & he same Word Sheriff was quite a stupid concept but duh it worked. Only 4 this reason, vote 4 Romney.