Posted on 08/11/2009 7:59:51 AM PDT by Brookhaven
In recent months, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has hit the speaking circuit like a man determined to be president who knows he needs to get an early start.
Last week brought news that Romney had secured a major publisher for his forthcoming book, “No Apology: The Case for America’s Greatness,” in which he stands bravely against all those who insist that the U.S. is a mediocre country that’s done more harm than good.
Even before the recent Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford flameouts, Romney looked like the right’s favorite son for 2012. He’d garnered National Review’s 2008 endorsement as a “full-spectrum conservative” and won the Conservative Political Action Conference’s February straw poll handily.
Conservatives ought to take a good look at Romney’s record and ask themselves whether a man of such flexible convictions is the best they can do.
Romney professes to be appalled by what he calls Obama’s international “tour of apology.” Given Romney’s pernicious influence on the health care debate, maybe he should go on an apology tour himself.
The health care reform package that Romney signed as Massachusetts governor in 2006 sought to provide universal coverage with a combination of individual and employer mandates and state subsidies.
Three years later, we have a record and, as my colleague Mike Tanner demonstrated in a recent Cato Institute study, it’s nothing for Romney to be proud of. Despite fee increases and a cigarette-tax hike — and despite the fact that most of MassCare’s costs are off-budget, imposed on the private sector — the program’s costs have grown much faster than projected, making up nearly one-third of Massachusetts’ projected $1.3 billion 2009 deficit.
Nonetheless, Romney continues to insist that MassCare is “a good model” for reform. Our current president seems to think so, too — as Tanner notes, Obama’s approach to remaking health care is “substantially the same as Romney’s.”
Libertarians also can’t be comfortable with Romney as limited government’s standard bearer. Asked in 2007 whether he shared President George W. Bush’s belief that the president has the power to arrest and imprison American citizens without review, Romney said that he’d like to hear the pros and cons from smart lawyers before making a decision.
His foreign policy positions reflect a jingoistic (and increasingly unpopular) bellicosity, and he wants to increase an already-swollen Pentagon budget by $50 billion a year.
But Romney’s biggest problem is this: It’s difficult to tell what his core political principles are, if indeed he has any. Running for governor in 2002, Romney proclaimed, “I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard.”
Three years later, with an eye toward the Republican Primary electorate, he announced that he was anti-abortion.
Instead of looking desperately for a leader, perhaps the right should relax a bit. Three years before the 2008 general election, Obama was a freshman senator who’d made one big speech, and virtually no one imagined he’d be the next president.
After a season of discontent, the limited-government movement has finally found its voice rallying opposition to the planned federal takeover of health care. Why, then, would the right line up behind the architect of the reform scheme that’s served as a model for Obamacare?
Examiner columnist Gene Healy is a vice president at the Cato Institute and the author of “The Cult of the Presidency.”
It seems the left in SF has figured Romney out (as the above opinon piece shows.) How is it conservatives commentators (Limbaugh, Hannity, Hewitt, Ingram, etc...) haven't? They defer to Romney as though he is the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan. I don't get it.
In the NFL draft they have a saying: "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane" to describe someone that looks great at first glance, but is really a different type of player than their outside apperance would indicate.
The same can be applied to Romney: "Looks like Ronald Reagan, governs like Ron Reagan."
Earth to DF examiner, Sarah didn’t flameout.
Make that SF Examiner
Romney is doing all the right political things to get the nomination. He is positioning himself well. The state run socialist propaganda machine know exactly what he is about, and will “arrange” it so that he is the GOP nominee.
Kind of like how we wound up with McLame last time.
It will be Romney v. 0bama in 2012.
I can only pray that you are wrong! 8 years of ‘Zero’ will leave us with a a third world ‘Amerika’.
After a season of discontent, the limited-government movement has finally found its voice rallying opposition to the planned federal takeover of health care. Why, then, would the right line up behind the architect of the reform scheme that’s served as a model for Obamacare?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I’m not sure who will emerge (Sarah perhaps), but the author is right with this statement. Health care has been the final straw that has pushed many over the edge (and from moderate over to the conservatives.) Romney would be an awful candidate to attempt to draw their votes.
If Romney was President today, we’d of had socialized medicine by the end of spring.
Agreed, nominating “moderates” is what got us in this mess.
Believe me, I DON’T want Romney! But look at how our political system has been picking our candidates since 1988. It seems every four years we ask ourselves “out of 250-300 million people, this is the best we can do?”
Our political system is a very flawed reflection of a society that has gone seriously askew. So Romney-Obama is about what I’ve come to expect.
A note to the Republican Party: You will not get either my money or my vote if Romney is on the ticket. I am sick of finger-in-the-wind political hacks and will not support or vote for them.
I saw no flames from Sarah Palin. However, I see fire in the eyes of her supporters.
It will never be Romney — too many Republicans detest him and his healthcare in MA will make him flame out. He holds Town Halls just like a Democrat — only supporters/staffers are allowed to ask questions and they are down in front.
Romney is too liberal pretending to be conservative and it shows. Slick needs to stay out of the Presidential race period because he can never get elected. Ask his buddy Istook how much he lost to our Doofus RAT Governor in 2006 — almost 2-1 and this is Oklahoma.
Well, maybe.
Maybe not.
Stopped right there. BS ALERT!
I knew who the author was talking about just by the title. Mitt needs to crawl under a rock somewhere and never come out.
Get in your time machine. Go back four years. Re-post your post. Change “Romney” to “McCain,” change “healthcare” to “immigration.”
I rest my case.
Unless we can get our primaries closed to registered republicans, this will happen again.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.