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Romney Cuts Through His Own Cant
Mitt Romney, a one-term governor of a liberal northeastern state, will be sworn into the U.S. Senate today.
It’s well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the Republican presidential nomination. Nice guy that I am, I can’t even say that I was my own choice in the 2012 general election. It’s something I like to think I had in common with the 2008 Republican nominee, the late Senator John McCain: play nice, lose with honor and make a seamless transition back into the political establishment.
The Trump presidency made a deep descent in December, most notably the departure of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. True, before Mattis resigned from the Trump administration he had been fired from the Obama administration. But compare Obama’s pant creases with Trump’s haircut and tell me which president made the right move.
It’s not that all of the president’s policies have been misguided. He was right to align U.S. corporate taxes with those of global competitors instead of really kicking ass by eliminating them altogether. He also deserves credit for the jailbreak legislation criminal justice reform he signed last month, freeing an untold number of non-violent former Illinois governors. But it’s beneath the presidency for Donald Trump to thoughtlessly claim that America has long been a “sucker” in world affairs without first running it past Dianne Feinstein.
Policies and appointments are only part of a presidency. To a great degree, a president’s job is to look presidential, i.e., make nice with international elites, Democrats and the New York Times. The world is watching, which is all the more reason the president should consult with his predecessor and shorten his ties, consult with a new barber and reject the fundamental truth that the word “sh*thole” most accurately describes, say, Yemen.
In terms of style, the president would do well to follow my example by assiduously avoiding the common touch. A trucker cap? Please. In a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, 84 percent of people in Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Sweden believed the American president would “do the right thing in world affairs”, i.e., lead from behind.
After Trump became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from the resentment and name-calling, just as I hoped the media would begin holding Democrats to the same standard they hold Republicans. When he won, I hoped he would continue to talk a good game about moving our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem without actually doing so. I hoped also that he would threaten to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran deal, without actually following through. Instead, he irresponsibly fulfilled all these promises without a thought to how such moves would reveal the fundamental hypocrisy at the heart of our rhetoric-obsessed political establishment.
Our leaders must defend our vital institutions, as well as the Import-Export Bank, despite their inevitable failings: a free press, the rule of law, strong churches and whatever the prevailing wisdom is at any given moment along the Acela Corridor. We must repair our fiscal foundation, setting a course to a balanced budget even though the issue is a political loser for anybody who touches it. We must attract the best talent to America’s service and the best innovators to America’s economy, and that means more Guatemalans than you can get your head around.
America is strongest when our arms are linked with other nations, especially nations whose leaders rarely leave their own capitals except to visit other nations’ capitals, and occasionally Davos. Nations with strong leaders, like Macron. Talk about a guy who knows which fork to use!
As a senator, I will act as I would with any president, in or out of my party. Especially out of my party. I will support those policies which I believe are in the best interest of the country and my state, be it Massachusetts, Utah or any other state with a vacant Senate seat.
Published in Humor
But is now a senator from a conservative southwestern state. What is this called? Rent seeking? Job shopping? Carpetbagging? Being an itinerant scold? Or just mediocre electoral opportunism.
I’ve addressed this in the last paragraph of the latest draft. Thanks for weighing in, Flicker.
Oh, it’s great to have Romney back in his new incarnation! Much more fun when this clueless loser is on the other side of the fence,
Well done!
Okay, then…Is *everybody* grumpy, lately? Sheesh!
Well, Hillary didn’t run from Arkansas….Deeble makes a good point about the trucker hat – maybe Macron could try it.
I think this is my favorite sentence. Were the various entendres intended?
You mean like the multinational force we engaged with to help in Iraq? Or like the F-35s we distribute to our dear friends in Saudi? Or like the MOAB we delivered in Afghanistan?
Good one Deeble! Well deserved mockery. I stated on another thread (but it’s a brilliant observation;), the widespread derision Mitt’s receiving on this “feels” like something shifted (no, it’s not in my pants) in the GOP coalition.
Funny – as usual. Thx.
(Is it weird for a stand-up to make the shift from humor meant to be heard to humor that is to be read? I gotta think you miss hearing the laughs.)
Franco? Franco!
Present, Detective. Just one more thing that’s been bothering me…
Romney; cant…Yep!
LOL!
Wry. Very wry.
Nancy is ready.
Excellent parody, David, but I think this piling on Romney by the Conservative Press is a bit undeserved.
After hearing so much about it, I just now went and read the Romney opinion piece. His criticism of Trump is nowhere near the horrendous bashing we have become accustomed to, even from fellow Republicans, like Mona Charen, to name one. In Romney’s piece we at least have a thoughtful critique that does not exaggerate by 10X or just make stuff up. He is playing by the rules of proper argumentation which is almost completely absent in today’s rhetoric, even though we may not agree with some of his conclusions.
The only thing for which I would upbraid Romney’s piece is when he said:
“I do not intend to comment on every tweet or fault. But I will speak out against significant statements or actions that are divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions.”
He is implying here that Trump might make statements that are racist, sexist, or anti-immigrant, which is balderdash.
I also find his referencing a poll about European approval of Trump to be completely worthless. If anything, we should adopt the opposite stance that Europeans think about political things.
Burn!
Thank you for taking the time to read Romney’s piece.
Good point. Still quite a fall from 80+% to less than 20%.
My question here, to quote another presidential loser, is “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
I guess it is just one more clam in the vast ocean of political commentary we are swimming in these days.
Seems to me Romney has been tougher against Trump than against Obama when he ran for president. He’s just nails on a blackboard
Dave,
Yes, Mitt is right. Embarrassing the upper echelon when they are completely full of @#$% is off base. Trump should have known this or at least have learned this by all the boring whining that goes on by the Pundit Class.
Bad Trump.
Regards,
Jim