[ok, enough obama-bashing for now; let's turn to the other side.]
so, even now, i get the questions all the time: "you think your guy's gonna get the nomination this time?", "you think paul ryan will help your guy?", "you think this todd akin thing will hurt your guy?", and, of course, the ever-popular, and usually said-with-a-sneer, "so whaddya think of your guy now?"
it doesn't seem to matter that i broke it off with mitt four years ago; the fact that i carried such a huge, flaming torch for him for so long sticks to me like stink on shit, and i can't shake it no matter what i say now.
* * * * *
i remember the first time i laid eyes on the guy; it happened back in 2002, shortly after the close of the salt lake city olympics. he was giving a long, informal interview about his role in transforming those particular games from a massive too-many-cooks clusterfuck into the fine swiss watch they became under his leadership. he was relaxed and loose under the camera's gaze, and spoke easily and articulately, outlining the process he undertook to turn the event around, and relying very little on the words "I" or "me" in the telling of the story. i watched, spellbound as i always am when confronted with that rarest of human qualities--true competence.
as the interview ended, i turned to the guy i was watching it with and said, "holy shit, this guy's gonna be president one day."
and why not? his dad had almost made it--hell, probably would have, had he not told an inconvenient truth before the american people were ready to hear it. and mitt seemed to be his dad's son--an honorable, self-effacing guy who just happened to have a knack for fixing complex things that were broken.
i cheered when he became governor of massachusetts. my admiration only grew when he and his team crafted a badly-needed healthcare fix for that state that not only received the full bipartisan support of its legislature, but even earned the endorsement of his arch-enemy, ted kennedy.
i admired his discipline and his character. here was a self-made guy who hadn't relied on daddy's money to make his mark on the world, and had seemingly avoided all the temptations to which so many rich, powerful men are prone--there was no hint of scandal in either his personal or professional life, and he had managed to successfully adhere to the strictures of a demanding religion without rubbing it in everybody's goddam face.
when he threw his hat into the presidential ring in 2008, i cheered once more. finally, my dream candidate--a fiscal conservative/social moderate, non-career politician who, unlike all the aforementioned assholes, had actually proven himself in the real world and knew how it worked.
and then he opened his big, fat i'd-sell-my-soul-to-be-president mouth, and it all went to shit.
[part 2 to come--excuse me while i go sob into my pillow.]
5 comments:
For those of us who lived in Massachusetts during Romney's political career there knew all about "his big, fat I'd-sell-my-soul-to-be-(WHATEVER) mouth" long before. He began by promising to be a better advocate for GLBT folk than Ted Kennedy -- and we know where that promise went. When he lost that race he ran for governor, promising that nothing would prevent him from serving a full two terms. In his third and fourth years, he was absent from the state up to or over 180 days a year, half the fucking year, laying down the foundation of his run for president. Of course he dropped the second term like a hot rock.
Throughout we saw his lying and the speed with which his policies could turn 180 degrees depending on what each individual audience wanted to hear. We were a stepping stone, no more; like Palin, he was a half-term governor, except that during the other half term he kept
collecting his salary, using the state vehicles, aircraft and publicity machine to advance his wider ambitions. I loathe the son of a bitch.
AND the hits just keep on coming. From an item on the Rachel Maddow show:
"Mitt Romney yesterday told CBS: "My position has been clear throughout this campaign. I'm in favor of abortion being legal in the case of rape and incest, and the health and life of the mother."
After the interview, Romney aides said the candidate misspoke and he doesn't support a "health" exemption, despite what he'd just told a national television audience. So much for "clarity.""
Well, whatever abilities Romney may have had in other areas of life, politics changes people.
Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger who had a superb bodybuilding career, a less than stellar acting career, and a was a very successful investor/businessman. Then he became governor. He left with a low popularity rating and most of California's problems having grown larger under his watch.
I guess that success in one area does not translate into a success in another area. I think this is particularly true with politics.
BTW, It's good to hear your first hand account Will.
I think you are dead on.
Thanks, noblesavage. I love it that his governorship is being touted as some sort of golden age for Massachusetts; we couldn't wait to seem him gone.
I watched his big speech and found it distinctly ordinary in tone (essentially the same as all the other Republicans' speeches). Promises but no hint of how it was all to be made to happen. A fair number of untruths. His usual vacuousness.
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