The Line on Mitt Romney



Have you read ther new -- or not so new -- Fortune Magazine article on Mitt Romney? Granted, Romney is an extremely capable and fabulously wealthy businessman and so it is expected that he would get more than fair treatment in the pages of something called Fortune (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment). The Corsair has watched Romney for years, however, and while Romney, like his father, he is a competent politician, he is -- unlike his father, a former Michigan Governor -- entirely lacking in a coherent set of fixed political ideas. It is absolutely uncanny how this man has morphed -- in one decade -- from a Moderate Republican into a Born Again Rightie, a 180-degree veer. It may be that the qualities that make a good businessman -- flexibility, compromise -- work against one in the political arena, this is probably most felt at the national level. One needs look no further at the quite possibly insurmountable learning curve of a businessman operating as politican at the national level than America's first CEO President (Averted Gaze).

Despite all the smoke and mirrors and generous helpings of praise lavished upon Romney by Fortune (he looks good in a suit; he is faithful to his wife), the article ends on a vaguely ominous note for "Mr. Fix-It":

"No matter how whiz-bang Romney's fundraising tactics are, his biggest stumbling block is probably himself. In Alton, N.H., on Memorial Day, Romney is meeting with veterans at the American Legion. It's a flag-waving, mostly blue-collar crowd; many of the older veterans are dripping with military bling. Romney takes the mike and begins his rapid, well-rehearsed talk. He moves from issue to issue, including how 'violent jihadists are waging a global war against the United States,' and 'I want to see more immigration in our country, but more legal immigration and less illegal immigration.'

"Then it's Q&A time. A few people want to know how to solve personal issues: a son who hasn't received medical benefits since he returned from Iraq; a father who can't get admitted to a VA hospital. Romney looks uneasy. 'I'm not an elected official right now,' he says, 'but if I were ...' He then goes on to say he'd make veteran health care a priority and instructs the people in need to contact their Congressman."

But he has great hair! These are questions, we cannot fail to note, that a politican -- a former Governor of Massachusetts -- would readily answer if he were comfortable in his political skin. Reptiles, who slough off their skin seasonally, however, get bewildered by this sort of strasight talk lest it cut off their maneuvering room during a long campaign.

(Fortune)