Mitt Romney’s Biographical Narrative MIA As Obama Successfully Defines Opponent
Mitt Romney has failed the first requirement of politics — never let your opponent define you. His favorability is falling fast, though Karl Rove would have you think Obama’s punches aren’t landing. Um, yes, they are. Here’s and interesting take on Mitt Romney biographical sketch.
Todd Purdum: “All presidential candidates depend on biographical narrative to define themselves to voters. Jimmy Carter was the Man from Plains and Bill Clinton the Man from Hope. George W. Bush was the Sinner Who Went Straight and John McCain was the War Hero Who Never Gave Up. Barack Obama was the Fresh Face from Nowhere, who embodied the American Dream. Every one of these men, by the time he ran for president, stood atop a thick biographical record–books and articles, testimonials from old friends, memoirs and tracts, soul-baring interviews. One had a sense of how they thought, how they reacted, what made them tick–and as time went on, it was generally easy to see how their actions fit the people we knew.” ”And Romney is… who? What? It’s hard to know, because he doesn’t like to tell us.”
What do you really know about Mitt Romney? Mainly what the Obama administration has put out there and the fact that he has always been ill-at-ease around ordinary folks. Romney’s personal image remains negative and it keeps getting worse, according to a recent Pew Research poll. He needs to lighten up and mix. Um, I forgot. He can’t do that. He’s like a robot. Even George W. Bush was more likable than Mitt Romney.
This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.
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Mittens learned one lesson from his father, but forgot to come across as likeable. George and Lenore were loved by Michigan, even the Uppers. Mittens and Anne are just arrogant, spoiled assholes…
I really, really want to see his tax returns put under the national spotlight. Again, not because I think he did anything illegal. Quite the opposite in fact. I’m sure he paid even less than the absurdly low 15% in taxes he paid on the returns he has shown us, and he did it all legally. The conservatives want to claim that there is some sort of class warfare started under Obama, when in fact the class warfare has been going on for years and the wealthy have been secretly winning it. Romney’s returns I am convinced would be very clear evidence of the different systems at work in this country between the upper class and the rest of us.
A frequent problem with the children and grandchildren of the hard charging people who made the money. The children have so much of their success dialed in that arrogance is all too often the result. My hide was thickened in high school as a scholarship student in an exclusive private school. The terrorists in the school were the upper class thugs whose last names more often than not were on the buildings and scattered through the endowment and who knew that they were untouchable and could get away with anything. This arrogance combined with the death of noblesse oblige are the best arguments yet for a crippling, confiscatory inheritance tax.
well said from first witness, Merkin. I found similar to be true. The arrogance and entitlement let’s say, ok their parents/grandparents didnt teach them any better. But, it was the cruelty and the not caring for others’ souls, spirits, minds, other than to exploit, the not regarding others’ basic dignity as human beings, that stands so heart-rusted-shut, by my sights. Thanks
This arrogance combined with the death of noblesse oblige are the best arguments yet for a crippling, confiscatory inheritance tax.
I haven’t seen anyone talk about noblesse oblige for years. And that’s the problem. It’s an old fashioned concept that no one, not even our leaders, believe in.
Maureen Dowd ponders the Mormon Church’s obsesion with record keeping and Mr. Romney’s penchant for destroying or concealing records:
[The Boston Globe reported Tuesday that although Romney promised “complete transparency” when he stepped in to save the Salt Lake City Olympics, he became a black hole: “Some who worked with Romney describe a close-to-the-vest chief executive unwilling to share so much as a budget with a state board responsible for spending oversight. Archivists now say most key records about the Games’ internal workings were destroyed under the supervision of a staffer shortly after the flame was extinguished at Olympic Cauldron Park, after Romney had returned to Massachusetts.”
...
The public still can’t see the records, stored at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott library, named for the same man as Willard Mitt Romney.
....
Romney spent $100,000 in state funds to replace office computers at the end of his term as governor and on the cusp of his 2008 presidential race, “as part of an unprecedented effort to keep his records secret,” reported Mark Hosenball of Reuters. Eleven Romney aides “bought the hard drives of their state-issued computers to keep for themselves,” Hosenball wrote. “Also before he left office, the governor’s staff had e-mails and other electronic communications by Romney’s administration wiped from the state servers, state officials say. Those actions erased much of the internal documentation of Romney’s four-year tenure as governor.” ]
This insistence on secrecy seems almost psychotic. And this is why Mr. Romney is unlikely to release those tax filings – that’s just the way he handles things. Which leaves his biography succeptable to others’ definition.
LOL
If he was a truly gifted CEO, he could have just scrubbed the hard drives clean and replaced said HD’s with his info removed from a scrubbed ISO file…
Would be cheaper than $100K…
Romney agrees with Everything and Nothing.
————————-
Abortion:
“abortion should be safe and legal”
“I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose”
FLIP-FLOP
”I am pro-life”
————————
Health care law with personal mandates:
“If Massachusetts succeeds in implementing it, then that will be a model for the nation. I Like mandates”
FLIP-FLOP
“I will repeal Obamacare.”
————————
Minimum wage:
“I think the minimum wage ought to keep pace with inflation.”
FLIP-FLOP
“There’s no question raising the minimum wage excessively causes a loss of jobs.”
————————-
Campaign finance limits:
“I would like to have campaign spending limits.”
FLIP-FLOP
“The American people should be free to advocate for their candidates and their positions without burdensome limitations.”
———————-
Auto industry bailout:
“I’m going to take burdens off the back of the auto industry.”
FLIP-FLOP
”Let Detroit go bankrupt. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.”
——————-
The bank bailout:
“The TARP program… was nevertheless necessary to keep banks from collapsing in a cascade of failures.”
FLIP-FLOP
“When government is… bailing out banks… we have every good reason to be alarmed.”
——————
Gingrich on Romney: Why nominate the ‘guy who lost to the guy who lost to Obama?’