By Tomas Rome, January 14, 2012
For the first articles on the revived Brave News World, I need original bulk content, quickly. What’s more apropos than to start off with a stream-of-conscious opinion pieces on the qualifications—or lack thereof—of the contenders running for President?
Mitt Romney
First, I’m not down on anyone who seems so Presidential he must be from Central Casting. Some people seem to hold this against him, for whatever cynical and warped reason of mental inversion that turns good into bad, and vice versa. As long as Romney has the grades, his “great hair” is fine by me—not that I even noticed, until reading all the sarcastic comments about it.
So what of Romney’s grades then? Well, the man got A’s as a double masters major in law and business at Harvard, which is a heck of a lot better than the “gentleman’s C’s” the last few Ivy Leaguers running for President received. So, it appears he’s smart in the right subjects, or at least two of them.
But is he Presidential material? Well, he’s been quite successful in both business and government, and shown himself a leader. He had a tough gig with the Winter Olympics in Utah, and turned a potential disaster into a success. He proved he can hang with and lead a group of greedy son-of-a-bitch capitalists (meant in the best possible way), yet still keep his integrity and morality. That’s not easy. His stint as governor of Massachusetts may have been a fairly easy job in comparison, especially while the economy was good, but he did a good job nonetheless. But it was his accomplishments as a young Mormon missionary in France in the sixties that is most impressive to me. He managed to turn around a shop with low morale and almost no converts into one that was quite successful. I mean, this is post-Catholic, secular France, for G-d sake, and he met his quota and more! That’s my definition of success.
Okay, truth in commentary—I’ve been a supporter of Romney for a whole month or so now. That’s despite counter-jihad blogger Pamela Geller’s criticism of Romney as clueless about Islam—a Bush II (III?) in other words. The reason I didn’t buy that is because Romney has Walid Phares, a counter-jihad expert of Lebanese background, on his team. I know Phares is not going to steer Romney wrong. That, and Romney is a practicing Mormon. There’s no way he’s going to carry that weight around all his life, only to surrender his church to Islamic fascists. Really, anyone who belittles Romney’s silver spoon youth ought to first consider living 64 years as a Mormon in good standing. A childhood living on a tight budget, as seemly all the other candidates claim to have lived, sounds a heck of a lot easier than growing up suffering anti-Mormon bigotry—from both the left and the right—as well as practice strict dietary, moral and religious rites. Yet, the man has done it with style. By the way, I feel a little vindicated today about supporting Romney, as he was just endorsed by John Bolton, a big friend of Geller.
Then there’s the flip-flopping charge. Frankly, Romney’s “flip-flopping” is somewhat comforting, as it shows he is flexible. I have no doubt he is a true conservative, but he seems to know when to yield a battle to the other side, in order to win the war. That’s called pragmatism.
NOTE: While I’m developing a theory that none of today’s candidates has any business being President, as well neither did nearly all past Presidents (exceptions: The Founder Presidents, Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover(!?!) ), until the unlikely day comes when Presidents must have rigorous qualifications like other jobs require, I must discuss this bunch.
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