Mitt Romey’s acceptance speech Thursday night was wondrous in all of the things he promised to do if he became President. Create 12,000,000 jobs. Give everyone massive tax cuts. Strengthen defense and make America the guarantor of freedom (or at least US allegiance) all around the world. Balance the budget. Preserve the ‘sanctity of life’, the ‘sanctity of marriage’, oh, and ‘religious freedom’ too, never mind that there are fundamental conflicts between what he means by those things.
If he thought it would help his chances, he would have promised to make elephants fly. Why not. Of course, he would not explain how he would do that, just as he did not explain how he would do all those other things.
He spent a major part of his speech in simple, obvious flag waving. As if that would somehow make us believe that he could do all the things he said. After making the case for what a nice guy, wonderful father, and fine family man he was, he did at least concede that Barack Obama was all of those things too. Yet despite that, Obama failed as President according to Romney. OK, so scratch all that as a guarantee of success as President. What else can you show me?
If Romney wanted to make the case that he would be successful in a government executive job, you would think he would mention his past success in a government executive job. Particularly with regard to key issues like jobs and the economy, you might expect he would boast of his success as governor of Massachusetts – one of the larger economies among the 50 states. Instead, he never mentioned a thing about that. Oh, he didn’t forget. The simple fact is that the economic performance of Massachusetts during his term was near the bottom of all 50 states for that period.
Yet there he stood, asking us all to accept without any rationale, that he would do all the things as President that he failed to do in Massachusetts. See my previous post for links to articles that quantify those facts.
Yes, if you believe that Mitt Romney can make elephants fly, then you should surely vote for him in November. If you doubt that, you should have similar doubts about all his other claims.
#1 by PasserBy on September 2, 2012 - 1:28 pm
“He spent a major part of his speech in simple, obvious flag waving.”
Always a risky proposition for Mr. Romney: beginning with his sons, and working back to the immigrant ancestor, it appears that no one in his line of the Romney family has ever put on a uniform and served in the U.S. military.
#2 by Dan Murphy on September 2, 2012 - 4:17 pm
Indeed. Mitt himself got through the Vietnam war with a series of draft deferments, including as a ‘minister of religion’ of the Mormon Church while in France. More here.
#3 by PasserBy on September 2, 2012 - 4:47 pm
Consider the case of W.P.H, a German national who in 1940 emigrated to the U.S. via Britain shortly before WWII broke out. Despite the obvious encumbrance of nationality, he petitioned the President (F.D.R) to be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, and after vetting by the FBI, W.P.H was allowed to join the U.S. Navy, serving from 1944 to 1947, being awarded a Purple Heart in the process.
Contrast the Romney family tradition (military service is for the little people) to that of W.P.H., a foreign national who petitioned the President so that he might serve. Thus did William Patrick Hitler (aka W. P. Stuart-Houston), the nephew of Adolf Hitler, serve his adopted country in the U.S. Navy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/24/nyregion/24patchogue.html
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21869126
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/369835/20120802/william-patrick-hitler-fdr-letter-photo-nazis.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Patrick_Stuart-Houston