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The Mitt Romney I Know

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Infomaniacs Anonymous

MIAMI, Fla. — I was entering 12th grade — and a five-year Republican phase — when Mitt Romney announced he was running for governor of my state. I vaguely remembered him from eight years earlier, in 1994, when the young venture capitalist gave Ted Kennedy a run for his money and his sacrosanct senate seat. Romney was articulate, charming, and — in the judgment of People Magazine — one of the world’s “50 Most Beautiful People.” Fresh from his recent success turning around the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics, Romney offered himself to the Bay State as the businessman who could solve its looming budget crisis. Aided by an unelectable opponent and a nationwide Republican landslide, Romney swept into office with a mandate and a bold agenda. I quickly applied for an internship at the State House, confident that one day I'd boast of having worked for President Romney when he was just a governor. I wasn’t surprised that Romney threw his hat into the ring last year — I was delighted. I even considered joining his campaign. So why am I now in Florida, doing everything in my power to ensure that John McCain beats him in today’s primary? Because McCain, for all his wrinkles, has proven himself an honorable man, willing to buck political pressure to stay true to his principles and himself. The slick suited man competing with McCain for the GOP nomination might go by the name Mitt Romney, but he’s not the Mitt Romney I know…

The Mitt Romney I know was a moderate Republican. Like most successful blue-state GOPers, Romney campaigned in Massachusetts as a fiscally conservative, socially liberal technocrat. He assured Massachusetts voters, as he did in ’94, that he passionately supported a woman’s right to choose. He vowed to defend the state’s “tough gun laws” and said that he didn’t “line up with the NRA.” When asked as governor what he thought of the comprehensive immigration-reform bill then being considered in Washington, he said he thought it was “reasonable” and “very different from amnesty.”

You know the rest of the story. Since leaving Massachusetts, Romney has disavowed virtually every moderate or liberal position he once held. He claims to have had a pro-life epiphany in 2004. Soon after that, he joined the NRA. And he now attacks the very immigration proposals he once championed with fiery Minuteman rhetoric.

The Mitt Romney I know didn’t demonize the non-religious.

With mounting questions about his Mormon faith and a former Baptist minister leap-frogging him in the Iowa polls, Romney delivered a highly publicized speech on “religion in America” a few months ago. Instead of using the opportunity to do what JFK did in his landmark address — advocate an “absolute” separation of church and state — he used it as a bait-and-switch opportunity to rail against “secularists” who seek to remove God from public life. Romney didn’t enunciate Mormon doctrine, saying that to do so would constitute an unfair religious test. He did, however, assure the Iowa evangelicals to whom the speech was primarily addressed that he believes “Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of mankind.” He took his appeal to the Religious Right a step further, proclaiming that “freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom” Huh? “Americans want their president to be a man of faith, whatever that faith is,” Romney has said often on the campaign trail. Personally, Mr. Romney, I’d rather my president be a man of reason, like you once were.

The Mitt Romney I know was a nonpartisan problem-solver who prided himself on his ability to work across the aisle. Granted, one doesn’t have many other options when your legislature is 85 percent Democratic, but Romney made the best of the situation. In his crowning achievement, Romney brought together Democratic legislators, conservative

think-tanks, and HMOs to hammer out a plan that was able to insure all Massachusetts residents without raising taxes. These days, Romney only talks about the program when pressed. Though he rails against “socialized

medicine” and “Hillarycare,” the reality is that his Massachusetts plan was essentially a state-level version of Hillary’s national proposal, complete with mandates and government subsidies.

Now Mitt Romney attacks John McCain’s Republican credentials because the Arizona senator dared to work with Ted Kennedy on illegal immigration, with Russ Feingold on campaign finance reform and Joe Lieberman on global warming. What chutzpah.

The Mitt Romney I know told the truth. At least it sounded like the truth at the time. But I suppose you have to be more careful when dozens of reporters are dissecting your every word. These days, not a week goes by without Romney being caught in another fib. First he was a “lifelong hunter” (he’s gone twice). Then he “saw his father march with Martin Luther King” (depends on what your definition of the word “saw” is).

But it’s not just fibs. False promises are also untruths. With his back to the wall after defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney returned to his home state of Michigan hoping to make political hay of the state’s moribund economy. Romney, or as I prefer to call him — “Pander the Michigander” — attacked John McCain for saying what every other student of globalization knows: There are some jobs that aren’t coming back to Michigan. “I disagree,” said Romney, doing his best John Edwards impersonation. “I’m going to fight for every job.” Romney won Michigan handily — it didn’t matter that during his tenure, Massachusetts had the third-worst job-creation record. Apparently, if you package the bullshit nicely enough, people will eat it.

The Mitt Romney I know could have made a great candidate and a great president. Alas, he’s become a parody of himself, the Republican version of John Kerry — just another flip-flopper from Massachusetts with nice hair. He deserves the same fate.

Ben Birnbaum is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at bbirnbaum@cornell.edu. Infomaniacs Anonymous appears Tuesdays.

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