Mitt Romney, His Father, and the Mother of all Republican National Conventions

Can Mitt Romney even reach ... much less survive ... the Republican National Convention?

(Image by Unknown Owner)   Details   DMCA

Strange Fruit -- "Mitt" (and) The Parents.   Sometimes the fruit does fall far from the tree. AP photo

Mitt's a nit-wit.   A superlative political hot mess.   By now it's beyond doubt, even among many Republicans.   Being a resident of Massachusetts, I've closely followed what amounts to Mitt's political "career" ever since his 1994 U.S. Senate run against Ted Kennedy.  Having done so, it's hard to avoid concluding that he's among the most dissembling, least savvy and fundamentally not-ready-for-politics politicians ever to seek elected office.  

Over the past several months, Mitt struggled to reach presumptive GOP presidential nominee status against a similarly lame-brained collection of blockheaded hard-right ideologues, pulling it off only because, unlike most of them, Moneybags Mitt is rolling in cheddar.   Newt Gingrich might have a half-million dollar line of credit at Tiffany's; but he ain't got no mansion with a built in car elevator in which to house all that bling.   And while Professor Newt might be an animal lover, it's Romney who owns the million-dollar trick ponies.

Not surprisingly, Mitt's campaign model is a brute force representation of simple-mindedness:   lie about his opponents; overwhelm them by using his vast financial resources to flood the airwaves with negative ads, pander to the political, cultural or economic philosophy of whomever stands before him (except NAACP conventioneers) and to never, never, (did I say never?) provide specifics about how anything he promises would be accomplished.

Mitt could neither out-spend nor outfox Kennedy which is why Teddy trounced him in "94.   So, in furtherance of the pursuit of his father's presidential aspirations, Mitt honed in on a slightly less significant office and far less formidable opponent.   Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon O'Brian held a steady lead over Mitt in the polls for weeks during their 2002 gubernatorial contest.   Then Mitt did a Monty Burns and released the hounds, unleashing a desolating barrage of negative advertising that helped give him a less than 5 percentage points victory over O'Brian.   He then enacted his term in Sarah Palin-like fashion "governing" for maybe half of his four-year tenure, utilizing what remained of it to line up his ducks for the ultimate goal -- the White House.

Indeed, as the 2012 GOP nomination process has unfolded, the larger voting public has come to realize what we local yokels here in Massachusetts soon figured out:   Mitt's just a political minor leaguer who is clearly out of his league in the Big Show.  Being such a shrewd financial wheeler-dealer, he'd probably make a fine town clerk, or, like the vanquished O'Brian, a decent state treasurer.   But, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES??!!  Who's kidding whom?   Dude's just not there yet.   Nevertheless, as the GOP prepares for a face-off against a vulnerable incumbent with a political IQ that sits in the upper stratosphere, it submits to voters one of the least politically-adroit candidates available from its roster of potential nominees.    

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3  |  4

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).