by Roland Hulme
A message to the GOP: Pick Mitt Romney at your peril.
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| The GOP can't count on Mitt Romney |
In 2004, for example, I bucked the trend amongst my European friends and firmly supported George W. Bush for a second term in office.
I didn't agree with the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, and I had deep suspicions about his "spend more, tax less" economic philosophy, but I still considered him a better bet than his Democratic rival.
Why? Because Senator John Kerry was running on a single platform: "Vote for me, I'm not Bush."
Almost eight years later, it looks like that situation has been reversed. Despite the delightful pretense that we plebeians actually have a say in the matter, RNC Finance Co-Chair Georgette Mosbacher has already announced: "We know who will be our nominee." It looks like Mitt Romney is going to get the nod.
And personally, I think that's a terrible idea.
Because despite the fact that some of his rivals are deeply scary individuals – Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry especially – poor old Mitt makes the worst possible candidate precisely because of the reason he's been chosen – his mediocrity.
The GOP are planning to run a middle-of-the-road Republican based on nothing more substantial than the slogan: "He's not Barack." The problem is, Romney has a track record of so-called "statism" that rivals Obama's own!
And the voters aren't going to fall for it.
The GOP, it seems, have drunk their own Kool Aid. After spending four years bashing Barack Obama with a fervor that's sometimes bordered on the delusional, they've created a fantasy in which all of America detests the black man in the White House as much as they do.
And while Obama's approval ratings indicate people certainly aren't happy with his performance, they're no more like going to vote for Romney than they were for Kerry in '04, especially if all Mitt has behind him is the promise: "I'm not Obama."
The Republican Party need a candidate who stands for something; not just against someone. And even if that weren't the case, Romney is the worst of all possible choices because what little he does stand for mirrors Obama's own policies.
For example, he invented the "Obamacare" health care reform that the Republicans now expect him to criticize and discredit. Romney's political advisers even met with Obama to help draft the bill!
If Romney ultimately takes the candidacy for 2012, Obama will get his second term in office. That's as inevitable as Kerry losing the election was in 2004. People in America want to look forward, into a bright new future (which is why "yes, we can" and "change you can believe in" were such winning slogans in 2008.)
By contrast, Mitt Romney and the Republican Party stand resolute in preserving the status quo.
That's a losing strategy.
who do you like?
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