Poor Punxsutawney Phil. His annual 15 minutes of fame got pre-empted this year.
Last Thursday’s top “news” story involved not a Pennsylvania groundhog, but two serial attention hogs. Mitt Romney and Donald Trump held a joint seven-minute news conference proclaiming the latter, who at one time professed to have interest in being president of the United States, is endorsing the former’s actual run for the White House. Neither man took questions at the mini-event, which conveniently took place inside one of the massive Las Vegas hotels owned and operated by its namesake.
Mr. Romney was outwardly giddy over having obtained Trump’s public approval. “There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life. This is one of them,” Romney said, continuing, “Being in Donald Trump’s magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight.”
It’s easy to discern why Trump, an egomaniacal billionaire developer/TV star, publicly declared his fondness for the former Massachusetts governor. The Donald clearly believes there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and like other celebrities who have become famous for being famous, he knows his pronouncements about anything are sure to attract lots of microphones and cameras, a small percentage of which might even be wielded by legitimate journalists. What’s harder to figure out is exactly why Mr. Romney coveted his approval.
There had been rumors Trump might come out for Newt Gingrich, currently Romney’s closest challenger, for the right to sic all the deep-pocketed, ethically challenged right-wing Super-PACs on President Obama this summer. And there was plenty of reason to believe such an alliance was in the offing. Both Gingrich and Trump are pompous, prevaricating bullies, and each has a bejeweled third wife more than two decades his junior. But his four bankruptcies aside, Trump doesn’t want to be perceived as backing a loser, which the former speaker of the house has looked increasingly like since his South Carolina triumph convinced Romney’s people to get their man to descend to Gingrich’s level, take his gloves off, and, oh yes, outspend the former Georgia congressman by a five-to-one ratio in order to thump him in the Florida Primary.
But exactly what good does gaining Trump’s endorsement do for Romney? Exulting over gaining the approval of one of the few Americans wealthier than he is, seems like odd strategy for someone who’s struggling to convince voters he’s sufficiently sensitive to their problems. A recent USA Today article revealed that if the wealth of the last eight U.S. presidents (Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton and Obama) were combined, it would equal half of Romney’s personal fortune, which is estimated at upward of $200 million.
The Republican front runner’s rivals have chided the Harvard MBA holder for being out of touch with ordinary Americans by taking many of his statements out of context. A perfect example was the Gingrich campaign making an issue of his quip, “I like to be able to fire people who work for me.” Romney indeed used those 12 words, but did so while advocating for consumer choice in health insurance at a New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce event. His entire statement, when taken in its intended context, wasn’t unreasonable, let alone as bizarre as his opponents tried making it sound.
Should Romney become the GOP nominee, Democrats will undoubtedly employ similar strategy, though such tactics shouldn’t do any more damage to him than the inevitable Republican mischaracterizations of carefully cherry-picked words spoken by President Obama will do to the incumbent. But offering to make a $10,000 bet with then-candidate Rick Perry during a debate was a classic foot-in-mouth moment Romney can’t blame on anyone but himself, and added credence to the contention the former Bain Capital general partner lacks the ability to fully comprehend the problems facing average Americans.
Whoever the Republicans nominate will have a well-oiled, right-wing propaganda machine at his disposal, and thanks to a 2010 Supreme Court decision they’ll have a virtually unlimited bankroll with which to try and blame the current president for the all of the nation’s real and imagined woes. But they’ll have to simultaneously endeavor to make Americans forget that Barack Obama inherited the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and also about whose policies precipitated it.
In between attempting to savage a chief executive under whose watch the auto industry has rebounded, a war has ended, financial industry oversight has been tightened, and Osama bin Laden has been dispatched, the GOP needs to present a plausible and attractive alternative to the current commander in chief. And it’s difficult to see how their presumptive nominee’s figuratively kissing the ring (or any other part) of Donald Trump will help accomplish that.
All the money in the world can’t buy character, or the case of a certain billionaire, even a decent hairpiece.
— Andy Young teaches high school English in York County. The fact he saw his shadow last Thursday is most likely significant of nothing.
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