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Romney’s in.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney gave his first major public speech in 18 months on Thursday. The speech removed all doubt that he would run for president in 2012.
The speech also settled another question: Which Romney would run?
There are two Mitt Romneys, one bad, one good.
The good Romney is the decisive executive who built a great venture capital business in the 1980s, saved the 2002 Olympic Games and delivered comprehensive health insurance as governor of Massachusetts.
The bad Romney is the Romney who delivered the governor’s last major public address, at the Republican convention in St. Paul in August 2008.
“You know, for decades now, the Washington sun has been rising in the east. You see, Washington has been looking to the eastern elites …. If America really wants to change, it’s time to look for the sun in the west ….” A strange thing to hear from the ex-governor of America’s second most easterly state.
2008 marked the end of a two-term Republican presidency and the recent expiry of 12 years of Republican congressional majorities. Bad Romney disregarded that history to score a crowd-pleasing point:
Last week, the Democratic convention talked about change. But what do you think? Is Washington now, liberal or conservative? … Is government spending, putting aside inflation, liberal or conservative if it doubles since 1980? It’s liberal.
So when Mitt Romney strode onto the stage at the Wardman Park hotel in Washington to address the Conservative Political Action Conference a little past 1:30 in the afternoon, anyone who admired Romney’s undoubted abilities had to feel a pang of uncertainty.
Happily, it was good Romney who showed up. This Romney was focused, intelligent, modulated. OK, maybe he was a little over-infatuated with CEOs and tycoons, as he lapsed into praise of Sam Walton, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Walt Disney. Yet his precise CEO mind served him well at a telling moment.
At one point, Romney’s text read: “the government doesn’t create jobs … only the private sector can do that.”
Romney pronounced the phrase as written, then paused. Problem: It’s not true. Romney spontaneously corrected himself: “in a lasting way.” Meaning: Yes, government purchasing can create employment, but only the private market can sustain economic expansion.
It may seem a small point. But it made a telling contrast with another much-anticipated speech, delivered only a couple of hours before by one of the conservative movement’s great hopes: Marco Rubio.
The young, Latino and emphatically Catholic Rubio is running for the Florida Senate seat, challenging the state’s governor, Charlie Crist. Many conservatives despise Crist for supporting President Obama’s stimulus plans. (Florida received a lot of stimulus money.) The twice-married Crist is also the target of whispered insinuations about his sexuality.
Rubio delivered a boastful testament to the American dream.
“This [the United States] is the only place in the world where you can open up a business in the spare bedroom of your home.”
“[T]his is the only country in the world where today’s employee is tomorrow’s employer.”
“[The United States] is the only place in the world where it doesn’t matter who your parents were or where you came from.”
And so on.
The problem is — it’s not true.
There are dozens of countries where people can start businesses, compete with the rich and rise above their origins.
In fact, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development just this year released a detailed study of social mobility. Among developed countries, the United States actually ranks toward the back of the pack for social mobility, barely better than supposedly class-bound Britain. A child born poor in Canada, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France (!) or Germany has a better chance of escaping poverty than a poor American.
There is evidence too that America has less social mobility today than it did a generation ago.
This information is not unconservative. Indeed it is conservatives who have identified some of the most important causes of America’s ossifying class structure: bad schools in poor areas, immigration policies that favor the unskilled.
Yet when it comes time to fire up the crowd, all this knowledge is forgotten — and what is offered instead are self-flattering pseudo-facts and pretend information.
Romney’s unscripted self-edit revealed a man who knew and cared about the difference between fact and fantasy. In a conservative world distracted and deluded by the Sarah Palins and the Glenn Becks, that self-revelation is desperately needed –and desperately welcome.
Originally published in the National Post.
TAZ // Feb 20, 2010 at 12:22 pm
I see Romney as smart and stupid.
He tends to have some issues with the truth, over little things. I (a supporter) even cringe over at times.
For now, he has my vote. But I will have to see if he goes off the deep end when he selects his V.P.. The same situation I was in with McCain, and ended up writing in Ron Paul.
I figure he will have to pick a pretty socially conservative person to offset his moderate (hidden) stances and I’m afraid he may go overboard too.
GOProud // Feb 20, 2010 at 1:01 pm
I see people who still think speeches made by candidates as the best way to determine a candidate’s mettle (cough, cough David Frum) as ancient and out-of-it as the utility of a city editor at a newspaper or as clueless as the guy who shows up with a screwdriver to fix an I-phone.
The work of candidates for 2012 at CPAC happens almost entirely away from the podium and the lights. Romney “won” over this group almost 2 yrs ago when he graciously bowed out of the GOP nominee race in deference to McCain’s MSM-momentum with mostly non-GOP primary voters. That was THE speech –not this one.
Romney has been hitting the ball out of the ballpark throughout this event –as well as before in assuring Scott Brown delivered the most stunning defeat in modern Democrat politics to the farLeft, liberal elite and its sitting president’s agenda. That was the kind of victory CPACers want & need.
Just like with John Edwards, I doubt there’s two Romneys or two Americas, David. There’s just speech writers who want candidates to make speechwriters the center of the campaign –and that ain’t ever, ever going to happen.
Steve851 // Feb 20, 2010 at 5:46 pm
The problem is that neither the good Romney nor the bad Romney has any ability to connect with people. I guess he’ll make an okay sacrificial candidate. I’ll sit the election out, however, just like I did in 2004 and 2008.
patricius // Feb 20, 2010 at 10:03 pm
It’s good that Romney “delivered comprehensive health insurance as governor of Massachusetts”? You don’t live here, Mr. Frum.
Analysis: Untruths have consequences in politics | Political Integrity Now // Feb 20, 2010 at 11:52 pm
[...] David Frum [...]
Dan Pet // Feb 20, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Well….thank you Mr. Frum. As usual you have cleared things up perfectly for me. My vote goes to ANYONE BUT GOOD ROMNEY 2012!!! Thanks, I appreciate that. With such sage advice, I can’t imagine why more than 5 people haven’t commented on it. Oh…that’s right…ONLY 5 people have read it. Looking over the comments though, I realize….no one took your advice. This is sad. The only reason I read it was that Hot Air linked to it.
Dan Pet // Feb 21, 2010 at 1:55 am
Ok. So the last post was snarky. But I have a question for you, Mr. Frum. Why do you get so nasty when it comes to Sarah Palin. I will admit, I am a big supporter of hers. I am a doctoral candidate from an ivy league school; someone you would probably not think of as a Palin supporter. But that is just it. She speaks for so many different kinds of people who feel dismissed and unworthy of being in the conversation. That is EXACTLY the feeling that you exhude. I can understand not wanting to vote for her, but WHY OH WHY must guys like you and George Will undercut her so. Why can’t you just acknowledge her, agree when she says something you like and disagree when she says something you don’t. I mean, the woman isn’t suggesting murdering babies. She is suggesting lower taxes, small government, free markets. I mean come on!! I know you disagree about global warming…but now…all things considered… you have to admit she got you on that one. Why must conservatives seeing a TRUE ROCK STAR in their fold, knock her down and denegrate her. We have so few STARS. She is willing to go out there…take the fire…keep standing. Hell, doesn’t she get a pat on the back for that. Don’t vote for her…but don’t demean her and in turn demean all of those for whom she speaks. Seriously, and I don’t mean this snarky, maybe more people would listen and read your blog. You always talk about a big tent. Are you telling me your GIGANTIC tent isn’t big enough for Sarah Palin? Think about it.
lowandslow // Feb 21, 2010 at 2:16 am
Hey Dan Pet, strawman much?
Let’s see, Palin speaks for all kinds of people that Frum thinks are unworthy to be in the conversation. Who are these people? When did Frum say they were unworthy to be in the conversation? And what conversation?
Why does Frum and George Will pick on her? Why don’t they just say nice things about her? She’s a true rock star? The tent isn’t big enough for her?
What is that Dan? That kind of statement lacks the coherence and reasoning of a 16 year year old and you’re a “doctoral candidate from an ivy league school”? Yeah, sure you are, and I’m dating Megan Fox.
Grow up, if Palin want’s support for Frum, Will, Krauthammer, me and millions of other conservatives she has to earn it. She has to show she has even the basic understanding and ideological reasoning of issues and for the positions she supports, something she hasn’t shown yet. The reason Palin isn’t taken seriously is because she isn’t serious. That’s something she could change but doesn’t seem willing to do.
Jeffriesboys // Feb 21, 2010 at 8:26 am
Really??? IF we have a Romney nomination in 2012, it will show that the GOP hasn’t learned a darn thing and certainly hasn’t GROWN! Sure, Romney looks good, but he isn’t the guy. He represents all that is currently wrong – the established GOP. I would love a Rubio candidate or any of the up and coming conservatives.
GOProud // Feb 21, 2010 at 8:39 am
Dan Pet, as a frequent reader of FF, I call help you with some of your questions… ’cause there’s nothing to date that David Frum has done to prove that he’s less tone deaf that Eric Holder.
First, FF –it isn’t just David, he’s got a slew of anti-Palin pundits here– literally hate Palin because of a simple, inescapable fact that some liberals and nearly all farLeft wingbuts hate her –she is a threat to several of their key constituencies… women who hold family values higher than political values, women who can be successful models as Moms and career leaders, women who care about special needs children and advocate for them in the face of liberal meanspiritedness like Obama’s “special olypmics” cut down, Rahm Emanuel’s “retard” lines and Jon Stewart’s use of the phrase “idiots and retards” to characterize anyone who doesn’t agree with the farLeft way.
Around here, hating Sarah Palin is a fetish… a fatal, must-be-requited lust that demands stroking or the itch will drive them insane.
I’m not a big fan of former governor Sarah Palin.
I don’t think she will run for the GOP nomination in 2012.
But I don’t hate her and flame her repeatedly to marginalize her views and provide me some comfort from a phenomenon I can’t fathom or explain –like th FF folks here and many of the trollishly devoted farLeft commenters.
Hope that helps. David Frum fancies himself an elite, first and foremost. It preceeds his “conservatism” –which I doubt. It preceeds his former loyalty to the GOP –which continues to be in short, short supply. Elites hate Sarah Palin more than the farLeft for the very reason I pointed out in the paragraph above.
neomom // Feb 21, 2010 at 9:14 am
Romney for SecTreas or SecCommerce – Yes! Sitting in the big chair… um, No!
Don’t trust him. He is a ‘politician’ in every bad connotation of that word. And David, in case you haven’t been paying attention for the past year, RomneyCare in MA is not exactly a selling point to the rest of the country.
Dan Pet // Feb 21, 2010 at 9:17 am
GOProud….thanks for the heads up. I had figured out that much but sometimes I just can’t take it. By the way, I am a doctoral candidate at an ivy league school, a union member teacher and a gay man. Iowandslow is a troll from HOTAIR and he can believe whatever he likes. No matter how many good interviews and thoughtful policy statements from Palin, they simply repeat the same mantra about her to diminsh her. Iowandslow…my statement is perfectly clear and makes perfect sense. You challenge my intelligence by simply restating bits and pieces of my post and put a question mark at the end of it. But you know what? Your bashing me…insinuating I am stupid and a liar…is EXACTLY the condescending attitude that you and Mr. Frum display. Take a lesson from GOProud. He isn’t going to vote for Palin, but he doesn’t bash her either. That vitriol, like what you and Mr. Frum display, comes from one place: FEAR.
Dan Pet // Feb 21, 2010 at 9:20 am
IOWANDSLOW: Grow up, if Palin want’s support for Frum, Will, Krauthammer, me and millions of other conservatives she has to earn it.
Hey Mr. “CONSERVATIVE” (which is an absolute JOKE, you troll) The way you use WANT’S in your reply is INCORRECT. It doesn’t have an apostrophe DOPEY!! And you question my intelligence???
lowandslow // Feb 21, 2010 at 10:45 am
Let’s see here Dan Pet, the only response you have to my post is I’m a troll, not a conservative, I added an apostrophe to wants and I insulted you.
Your a union member teacher and a gay man? God help our students if the best they can find for teachers are people with the intellectual and emotional capacity of a teenager. And I like how you inserted “union” as if you’re proud of it.
What an idiot, come back when you can actually give an argument why anybody should support Palin for anything.
Churl // Feb 21, 2010 at 1:03 pm
The purpose of Mr. Frum’s operation here is to build a conservatism that can win again. Mr. Frum seems to like Mitt Romney.
So, one could ask:
(1) Is Mr. Romney conservative?
(2) Could he win?
lowandslow // Feb 21, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Churl:
(1) Is Mr. Romney conservative?
Well he isn’t a progressive liberal is he? Ever since the last Presidential primary, political blog commentary has dissolved into a labeling game by the standards of the commenter. Since Romney signed a form of Healthcare insurance reform in Mass. he’s a RINO or not a conservative. In reality it’s not true. It’s the same with pundits, it’s fashionable for blog commenters to diminish any viewpoint that may differ from theirs by throwing out the same labels and adding a few disparaging remarks about their character for good measure. It doesn’t advance any political discussion but it strokes the self importance of the commenter, he’s more conservative then you, so there.
The better question would be is, does his ideology address a solution to the problems we face and does his record of governing or experience show he can convert that vision into policy. You’re going to have to make up your own mind on that.
(2) Could he win?
I don’t know, for two reasons. I’m still not sure how much his religious beliefs will hurt him and in this American Idol version of today’s politics who knows what people are thinking when it comes to elections.
Churl // Feb 21, 2010 at 3:51 pm
lowandslow, so I guess you don’t know either.
It would be nice to hear from Frumco Inc. a definition of “conservative”. I mean, really, an outfit that’s taken on the job of building a conservatism that can win again ought to be able to mention some of the philosophical markings that define the conservative species.
It seems clear that conservatives are not Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, or Dick Cheney. But his isn’t much to go on in picking candidates to back.
ktward // Feb 21, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Dan Pet:
I am a doctoral candidate at an ivy league school, a union member teacher and a gay man.
Based on the level and content of your discourse, I seriously doubt most of that. Thing is, embellishment’s simply not necessary; no one’s interested in what you have to say about yourself unless it’s germane to the thread topic.
As for Palin … you’re certainly entitled to your opinion. One person’s flagrant opportunist is another person’s ‘rock star’, I guess. By now, Palin analysis is so ubiquitous across all media that, really, I doubt anyone remains on the fence about her.
That said, I can’t imagine what you (and GOProud for that matter) seek to gain by beating this particular dead horse on FF. I’m sure there must be Palin support blogs out there where you chaps can more productively, uh, support her. Just a thought.
VancouverAndy // Feb 22, 2010 at 11:44 am
Good Romney, Bad Romney, The Hot Box advertisements on our right. Hollywood image politics, McCainians, Broder, Will, Frum. Progressive labels for Progressive people. It really is a cancer within the GOP. See you kids in November for sure.
exileonmainstream // Feb 22, 2010 at 3:16 pm
The binary argument over whether government or the private sector creates jobs, “sustainable” growth, or whatever is kind of silly. A modern, complex economy like ours has public and private sectors that are codependent and inextricably entangled. As James Fallows pointed out in his Atlantic cover story on American declinism:
“Robert Atkinson, the director of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, in Washington, has written that several times per century, a “transformational wave” of new technologies ripples through the economy and creates new opportunities and wealth. In the past, these have included mass-production systems, modern chemicals, aviation, and so on. Today the economically important technologies include genomic knowledge, information technologies like the Internet, and the geospatial information, from the GPS network, that is built into everything from dashboard navigators to the climate-change-monitoring systems that measure the size of glaciers or extent of forests. Private companies now create the jobs and wealth in each field, but public funds paid for the original scientific breakthroughs and provided early markets.”
Romney, above all 2012 contenders, knows this.
But judging from his CPAC speech, it looks like he’s throwing in with the crackheads. It’s too bad, really. The spectacle of him running as Mr. Conservative against McCain was pathetic. I thought the ‘12 race, with the joke that is Palin on his right flank, would give him the chance to run like himself. Alas, as of now, it looks like I was wrong.
rookie // Mar 3, 2010 at 2:16 pm
David,
You know better than that !
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