Romney Retrospective

The Romneys in Altoona, Iowa

I suspect that for many of us on the conservative side Mitt Romney's rise through the primaries had a foreboding familiarity about it.  McCain redux.  Another politically spineless pretender to conservatism carrying the Republican banner.  Another candidate of adaptive principle who would rather be liked than respected.


And how could we be blamed for our prejudices?  Romney -- until quite recently -- was not clearly defined and, worse, he seemed the favorite of the party establishment, which is never a good sign.  Worse still, he seemed the favorite of the opposition Neo-Marxists.  Not much there to inspire enthusiasm.  In fact, few months ago I wrote this comment on the UKT blog:

For Romney, I think, conservatism is a second language  (CSL).  He speaks it well enough, but his command of idiom is dicey -- it slows him down, keeps getting in the way.  He lacks the natural spontaneity of a native speaker.

But in the weeks leading up to the election the picture greatly improved.  Not only better than I had expected (itself, not a high threshold), but better than I could have imagined. Several things caused me to change my mind about Mitt Romney.  First, his plain-spoken European trip, his quick and decisive responses to opposition attacks (at least early on), his choice of Paul Ryan, and, mostly, his grounded performances in the presidential debates -- especially the first -- where he demonstrated his new fluency in conservatism.

During the primary debates Mitt Romney seemed somewhat adrift on principle, wanting in clarity and defensively uncertain of himself.  But on the platform with President Obama he was a different man.  How can this apparent transformation have happened?  Had he been coached into a new -- perhaps false -- persona?  

I think Mitt Romney is not a man naturally given to philosophical thought in matters of government and economics.  Rather, I see him as a pragmatic sort whose vision is held in check to the limits of the task at hand.   In his first bid for the presidency Romney did not respond to his party's conservative base, and it cost him.  Since then he had set about to learn conservatism and follow its principles; he simply did what was required to get the job done.  In fact, it was not a far reach; he is a capitalist, and though all capitalists are not conservative, capitalism itself is.

I never saw him as insincere: [1] the job has its requirements and he set out to become qualified.  His views are those of a technocrat, and I think he appreciates the practical value of conservative ideas in a real world largely unknown to ideological Democrats.  If I am right, with Ryan to steady him, he might have been a very good president.  Not a small-government reformer, perhaps; not a Reagan visionary for certain, but in most things solid. The worst President Romney I can imagine would have been vastly preferable to Barack Obama.

Despite the criticisms of the Romney campaign the candidate made a respectable showing in the election.  Given the forces arrayed against the candidate and the party on a steeply canted playing field I'm not sure a win was ever possible.  If Romney had carried the vote, the election would have faced interminable, re-counts and court challenges, which, in the end, would have overturned the election outcome. [2][3]


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1.  Whatever I may have thought about Governor Romney's political views, I have never doubted his character, and that suggests to me that he would be uncomfortable appearing to be anything other than who he is. 
2.  Not only did Mitt Romney face Alinsky-style personal attacks from the Obama campaign amplified by legacy media, but additionally a probable level of pre- and post-election voter fraud that Hugo Chavez would admire.
The Democrat legal Mafia did not walk away from the 2000 election debacle in Florida without resolving to improve their strategy for stealing elections.  Only an overwhelming Republican majority vote (unlikely in a closely divided country with an ill-defined candidate) could have resulted in an unchallenged victory.
3.  What I have been trying to convey is my view that Romney turned out to be a far better candidate than we might have expected, considering that he was favored by the Republican establishment and Leftist media.