Requiem for a Centrist

The Boston Globe Editorial Romney squandered a quality brand simply points out that Gov. Romney had the chops to run, and perhaps even win, as a Centrist, if only he had trusted his experience.

The Mitt Romney Massachusetts voters elected governor in 2002 was not the same person who started running for president barely halfway through his term. The Romney we once knew could have made a credible case for the presidency: a smart, data-driven, can-do executive who wouldn’t let ideology get in the way of pragmatic solutions. This pitch could have appealed to voters weary of destructive politics and hungry for progress.

It also would have had the benefit of being true.

Instead, Romney decided that he first needed to get past the doctrinaire conservatives he thought held a chokehold on the Republican primaries. He shed his pinstripes and donned a Tarzan suit, thumping his chest about immigration, gun control, morality, and religion. The new suit never quite fit, and the voters knew it.

Romney ended his presidential campaign as a venture capitalist who squandered a quality brand – his own.

It’s gratifying that neither of the two Republican candidates still in the race is the darling of the hard right, if for different reasons. John McCain, the presumptive nominee, is reviled for working with Democrats on issues such as campaign finance reform, immigration, deficit reduction, and global warming. The unexpectedly appealing Mike Huckabee is suspect because he raised taxes as governor of Arkansas and cares about “all God’s children,” including the children of illegal immigrants.

Even more than their occasional heterodoxies, however, McCain and Huckabee share that elusive character trait of authenticity. They may have tacked a few times on particular issues, but voters believe they are sincere in their convictions. So much of Romney’s shape-shifting campaign seemed insincere.

Without a foundation of core principles, it became easy to see expediency, or even hypocrisy, in Romney’s performance. When he rose indignant about New York as an “amnesty city” for illegal immigrants, it was easy for Rudy Giuliani to zing Romney about the illegals employed at his own “amnesty mansion.” When Romney attacked McCain for sponsoring limits on campaign contributions he said hurt the Republican Party, it was easy to recall how little Romney did for the state GOP; indeed, when Romney left office there were fewer Republicans in the Legislature than when he came in.

Romney framed his departure in terms of sacrifice to his party and country. “If this were only about me, I would go on,” he said. But to fight on to the Republican convention, he said, would “forestall the launch of a national campaign,” making it more likely that a Democrat could win.

It’s understandable that Romney wants to go out on a high note. But McCain swamped him in Tuesday’s primaries, and McCain’s total of four times as many delegates made it nearly impossible for Romney to catch up.

It’s one more Romney position that cannot entirely be believed.