TheBlueBrothers

Much has been made about Mitt Romney’s downward spiral over the last two weeks. Every day we hear political pundits tell us how out of touch Romney is and how he hasn’t been able to connect with middle-class voters. Conservatives have attributed the fall to specific political missteps such as when Romney failed to mention the troops in his acceptance speech at the RNC or when a senior Romney campaign staffer compared his boss to an Etch-A-Sketch—which by the way—still remains my favorite moment from the 2012 election season. Democrats blame Romney’s downfall on the “out of touch” factor, frequently citing his great wealth, top-secret tax returns, and the elevator he had installed in his California home for his car. They simultaneously chide him for being wooden and inhuman. For this argument they often refer to his quote, “I like firing people,” which they usually tie to his record at Bain Capital, where Romney and his colleagues purchased ailing companies, sucked out any equity they could for themselves, loaded up the company with debt, and then filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying these debts. One of the many costs of this kind of vulture capitalism is that it resulted in the loss of thousands of American jobs. To further dehumanize Mitt, liberals also love citing the incident where Romney tied his dog Seamus to the roof of his car for a 12-hour road trip and then when asked about it, Romney claimed that Seamus “liked it up there.” No word on how the Romney family felt about Seamus defecating liquid down the windows of the car (yes this actually happened). For those of you drawn to this story, there is actually a facebook page devoted to the incident. This week political pundits are enamored with the footage of Mitt Romney speaking at a private fundraiser and stating that 47% of Americans are lazy free loaders and that he could win this election if only he were Latino. And the hits keep comin’.

These incidents (and others like them) certainly haven’t helped the Romney campaign, but I don’t think we can point to them as the primary reasons Romney will lose in November. The biggest reason he will lose is that people simply don’t trust him. Voters have shown time and time again that they will vote for criminals, philanderers, former drug users, and every other form of lowlife imaginable, but they don’t want a flip-flopper. Previous elections show exactly that. John F. Kennedy was born into extreme wealth and prestige, but voters didn’t care; Ronald Reagan was the first President to be divorced, but voters didn’t care; George H.W. Bush was classified as rich and out of touch, but voters didn’t care; Bill Clinton was known to be monogamously-challenged, but voters didn’t care; George W. Bush was notorious for putting his foot in his mouth at virtually every campaign stop, but voters didn’t care. Misguided or not, there was a level of trust with all of these candidates. Even with Slick Willie in the White House, many Americans trusted that this was a man who understood the needs and pains of every-day Americans.

With Mitt Romney, however, people have no idea what they are getting. As Ted Kennedy famously said in his debate with Mitt Romney in 1994, “I am Pro-Choice; my opponent is multiple choice.” A joke that keeps popping up throughout the campaign season is this one: A liberal, a conservative, and a moderate walk into a bar. Then the bartender asks, “What can I get for you Governor Romney?” These attempts at humor highlight a much larger problem for the Romney campaign. No one knows where he stands, and that makes voters uneasy.

In many ways, this election is similar to the 2004 election between John Kerry and George W. Bush. In 2004, the country was in the midst of two wars, one of which was extremely unpopular; no weapons of mass destruction had been found; bin Laden was still at large; the Bush Tax cuts did not give the hoped boost to the economy; the federal debt was spiraling out of control; the Bush White House obliterated the surplus created under President Clinton; no new jobs were being created and manufacturing jobs were vanishing. The election was Bush’s to lose. Democrats liked their chances, and why not? They were running against an unpopular president who was guaranteed to produce countless gaffes on the campaign trail.

But something happened. In the weeks before the 2004 election, George W. Bush said something that I believe was the single sentence that won him his re-election. He said, “You may not agree with me, but you know where I stand.” When I heard that I said, “Wow. He’s right.” The image of Bush’s conviction juxtaposed with John Kerry saying, ‘I voted for the war before I voted against it’ was the reason Bush went home the victor. (The actual Kerry quote was “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it,” referring to the war’s funding. The real quote about spending morphed into the quote you see above.) What became apparent is that the American people would rather have an honest thief than an indecisive flip-flopper. Apparently Romney didn’t learn much eight years ago.

– Nathan

This entry was posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.