February 10, 2008
Mitt's Concession Suspension speech
As you might've guessed, Mitt Romney's departure from the GOP race has been a big story around these parts. Since I have an inexplicable habit of watching the local news, I've seen his concession speech a number of times. Every time, I get very irritated and have to resist the urge to curse at the television set. (Thanks to Jon Stewart, I know I'm not alone. See below...)
The speech, like so many Romney appearances and speeches, was peppered with trite GOP slogans and buzzwords (so much so that it makes me wonder if the "suspension" of his campaign was not Romney's idea as much as it was a stern request by party officials). I think this might be a reflection of his greatest failure as a presidential candidate, and one of the principal reasons his campaign never garnered majority support. As one of the columnists in the conservative, church-owned (i.e., usually pro-Romney) local newspaper opined, the "real" Mitt never showed up in the campaign. Regardless of whether or not this is completely true, there is no doubt Romney painted himself as "the conservative candidate" when his record clearly indicates he is (or was) not. From the same column:
In the end, in his never-ending quest to get votes and be all things to all people, he allowed Rush and Sean, those fading virulent talk-show superstars, to paint him as an arch-conservative when anyone who watched him win the governorship of Massachusetts — not to mention who watched him get along famously with Salt Lake's liberal mayor Rocky Anderson in the Olympic years — knows he's no conservative. He's the absolute king of the moderates. He proved that during our Olympics, building bridges, bringing people together, working within the system, considering all positions, creating solutions.
I'm not sure why Romney chose the campaign path he did. I suspect he and his staff simply calculated that it was the most viable path to the presidency. (It might have been, if not for Mike Huckabee.) But it's problematic when a candidate's stump speech rhetoric clashes so starkly with his record.
Like Romney's so-called JFK-speech (which I complained about in December), the 'campaign suspension' speech hit upon all the same tired themes we've been hearing from social conservatives and talk radio goons for years now. (The Democrats want to surrender to terrorists; pornography, welfare, and gay marriage are ruining the country - not disastrous wars, political corruption, woefully inadequate education, or dependence on foreign oil; etc.) Come on, Romney... you must be smarter than that. If you're not, you certainly do not deserve to be the Republican nominee, now or ever.
Watch Jon Stewart's brilliant analysis of the speech:
(Update: Fixed YouTube link. When they take it down again, try the official one. The followup story about what gay marriage has done to Massachusetts is pretty funny, too.)
10 Feb 21:05 | Link | Category: Humor, Opinion & Thoughts, Politics, Video