Mitt Romney is mad.
Wouldn’t you be mad if you had double digit lead in the
polls in South Carolina only to squander that lead in a matter of
days and then lose to Newt Gingrich by twelve points?
Wouldn’t you be kicking yourself not releasing your tax
returns even though your top advisers had exhorted you to do
so?
This is not where Mitt Romney expected to be going into
the Florida Primary. He was supposed to have gone three for three
in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Instead with only the
Granite state in his pocket, Romney has entered the Sunshine State
facing his winter of discontent.
So now Romney is going after Gingrich with everything he’s
got. In light of the fact that Romney will soon release his tax
returns, he is
accusing Gingrich of “potentially wrongful activity of some
kind” by not registering as a lobbyist for Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, called upon him to return compensation he received from Fannie
& Freddie and for good measure called him “highly erratic.” You
can be sure that Romney will be raising this and then some during
the two Florida debates this week.
While these charges might once again raise doubts about
the former House Speaker, will it necessarily benefit Romney? After
all, Romney is telling Republican primary voters why they shouldn’t
vote for Gingrich. But it doesn’t tell them why they should cast
their fate with him. After all, when the Romney PAC went after
Gingrich, it ended up benefitting Rick Santorum.
So therein lay the problem. What is the raison
d’être of Romney’s candidacy? Well, his main selling point has
been his experience in the private sector. Yet when that experience
is challenged, Romney displays the kind of thin skin reminiscent of
President Obama. Romney equates criticism of his time at Bain
Capital with criticism of free enterprise itself. That Romney
considers his private sector record beyond question is a strong
indication that he treats the Republican nomination as if it were
an entitlement. And here we thought Romney wanted to earn his way
to the nomination. At the very minimum, he has to do more than
earn
it in New Hampshire.
Frankly, aside from a clear cut victory in the Granite
State, the only thing Romney has earned during this campaign is
suspicion from many Republican primary voters. His reluctance to
release his tax returns gave suspicion that he was being evasive
and had something to hide. Romney also earned suspicion when he
said he enjoyed firing people who provided services to him. Yeah,
yeah, I know he was referring to health care providers. But is it
really a stretch of the imagination to believe he also enjoyed
firing people while he was at Bain? At the very minimum, these were
not very carefully chosen words and he said them far too casually.
In a time of high unemployment, are those struggling to make ends
meet going to trust the economy in the hands of someone who derives
any kind of enjoyment out of firing people?
Of course, Romney continues to earn suspicion from
Republican primary voters for being a conservative of convenience.
It is all well and good for Romney to extol Ronald Reagan’s virtues
and to say he wants America “to remain the shining city on the
hill.” But when he was running against Ted Kennedy here in
Massachusetts in 1994, Romney wanted absolutely nothing to do with
Reagan when he
said, “I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I’m
not trying to return to Reagan-Bush.” While one can criticize Newt
Gingrich for being at odds with conservatives at various points
over the years, he led Republicans to a majority in the House of
Representatives and no one can take that away from him however some
might try. And where was Romney while Newt was championing the
Contract With America? He was calling it a “not
a good idea” and a “mistake.”
I understand that Mitt Romney is angry at Newt Gingrich
for stealing his thunder in South Carolina. But while Romney
directs his anger at the former Speaker, Newt will be content to
direct his anger at President Obama and the liberal media who
protect him. If Romney isn’t careful and lets his anger towards
Newt get the better of him, he could help clear a path for Newt to
the White House even more than he has already.
