Governor Romney, You Had Your Chance 4 Years Ago; STFU

Governor Romney delivered an impassioned, ringing speech skewering Donald Trump. If only Mitt had shown such passion four years ago, he might have won, or at least come closer rather than being trounced by President Obama. I voted for Governor Romney. I supported his election. I thought then, and truly believe today, that Governor Romney would have been a much better president than President Obama. He would have bridged the deepening racial gap rather than inciting it. Yet his candidacy was fatally flawed. He was the wrong candidate at the wrong time in American history. Governor Romney is a very smart, decent, humanistic person. Yet he let himself be portrayed as a cold, heartless plutocrat. No response! Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s 2012 Deputy Campaign Manager, said Romney was either a felon or liar on his relationship with Bain Capital. No response! Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid said a critical source told him that Romney had not paid income taxes for ten years. No response! Senator Reid explained his lie later: “We won, didn’t we?” Governor Romney was castigated for having offshore (Swiss) bank accounts. No response! Mitt Romney was leading in the polls in 1996 Massachusetts Senate campaign against Senator Ted Kennedy. Senator Kennedy’s campaign then ran the Ampad Ad in which workers accused Romney of laying them off after Romney’s Bain Capital acquired the company. No response! Romney lost. Mitt Romney also did not respond to the same claims raised by Newt Gingrich in the primary campaign nor in the general election by the Obama Campaign. No response! Mitt Romney was a genteel campaigner. Donald Trump is a scrappy street fighter. Mitt Romney became a clueless, heartless campaigner. That will not happen to Donald Trump. Governor Romney questioned Donald Trump’s honesty and judgment. He called him a “phoney” and “fraud.” That’s ironic considering the Governor’s political gyrations. He was elected Governor as a moderate Pro-Choice Republican who favored gun control. He enacted RomneyCare, the model for ObamaCare. Massachusetts Republicans have to have these positions on the rare chance they can win an election in the liberal state. The Governor had an epiphany in running for President. He became Pro-Life and opposed gun control. He opposed ObamaCare, but was relatively mute in distinguishing RomneyCare from ObamaCare. The Governor, reflecting the fears of the eastern establishment, brought up echoes of the 1964 LBJ Landslide. The GOP establishment joined the media and LBJ’s campaign in trashing Republican nominee Senator Barry Goldwater. LBJ’s campaigns was symbolized by the brutal Daisy Ad. I was a young, naive liberal in San Francisco in 1964. I believed the calumnies against Senator Goldwater. Only later did we learn that, while the Johnson campaign was depicting Senator Goldwater as an out of control warmonger, LBJ was secretly planning a major escalation in Vietnam. We learnt that the Golf of Tonkin resolutions were based on falsity. Governor Romney still doesn’t get it. Republicans believed President Obama was vulnerable 4 years ago. Governor Romney ran a clueless, tone deaf campaign. He didn't get it then. He doesn't get it now. The two leading Republican candidates, Donald Trump and Senator Cruz, are anti-establishment. Senator Marco Rubio, the recently anointed candidate of the Establishment, is barely hanging on. The outsider Trump is running a non-traditional campaign for the American public, which is disillusioned with traditional politicians. No more Tweedledee, Tweedledum with Republicans leaning slightly to the right and Democrats slightly to the left. They want a fighter. Nobody cares what Romney says today.