Imagine you are at a party. You are a single guy. You look around and see a lot of single ladies. Making a good impression on a few of them is in your own self-interest. You go up to a group of them and start chatting. Eventually the topic of politics come up. People start talking about who they like for president. And you chime in to say you like Mitt Romney because he represents "real change in Washington." You know what happens next? You are not only standing there by yourself but you may also find yourself being asked to leave this party.
Let's talk about all this talk about "change" going on. Coming from a Republican, this is just plain silly talk. Mitt Romney supports George W. Bush and his policies. Where does Romney disagree with Bush? I am not sure. If anything, Romney wants to out-Bush Bush. You may remember him saying he wants to "double Guantanamo." Heck, even Bush said he wants to close Guantanamo down. Romney just picked up on the "change" message when cool kid Barack Obama used it in spectacular fashion in Iowa and in South Carolina.
I just have trouble believing that this particular rich white guy named Mitt Romney can represent change. What in his past shows that he has been fighting for change? I mean, beyond three weeks ago, what? What in Mitt Romney's past shows he has been interested in anything besides making money?
This is going to be a "cool kids" election. Barack Obama is an historic candidate. Hillary Clinton is an historic candidate. Either of them becoming president would move us past the little narrow paradigm we have chosen to live in for far too long. (I myself am aiming to be the first half-Asian, half-Jewish president. I am turning 35 this year. We shall see.) Now I am not saying that being a white guy should disqualify you from being president. But white guys running for president are going to have to bring their "A" game from now on.
What is Mitt Romney's "A" game? Well, he doesn't have one. Ronald Reagan had one. Bill Clinton had one. Even George W. Bush had one. All of these candidates could create a kind of unity with wide swaths of people. Their communication skills allowed this. Mitt Romney, not so much.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
The "Cool Kids" Election
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3 comments:
yes, I am tired of Mitt Romney already. But what about McCain? I am tired of the Iraq war, too and he seems to be perfectly fine with it?
I think Obama is the most likely to phathom what "change" might be, but really? I don't think any candidate really wants anything that resembles "change."
I think they all want things to stay EXACTLY the same. No one want to make the very difficult and sacrificial changes that are necessary to truly return the market -- and our people -- to health.
Oh, I could go on and on about reducing interest rates, global economies versus local economies...but I won't.
The word "change" doesn't quite do it for me. President George W. Bush changed things too. "Change" is a neutral word. Could be good or could be bad.
At this point, I am for Hillary. I am looking at Barack and could be convinced by him too. We shall see.
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