David Axelrod, a top political strategist for President Obama, raised an interesting point about Mitt Romney's big speech in New Hampshire last night.
It's a fair point about an overlooked aspect of the speech. In fact, going through the transcript this afternoon, I noticed that Romney mentioned his father being a governor, but not his own term in office.
When I was doing research for this recent piece on presidential candidates and their pre-campaign experience in public service -- Romney's the least experienced nominee in 72 years -- I found plenty of governors and former governors who tried (and succeeded) to parlay their background as the chief executive of a state into becoming the chief executive of the nation.
But I could find no example of a major-party nominee whose only experience in government was serving as a governor, but who then made no effort to talk about this experience as part of his appeal to voters for national office. Nor could I find any examples of a governor quitting after one term, knowing he'd lose if he sought re-election, and then running for president.
And why is it, exactly, that Romney is avoiding the subject of his only background in public service? Perhaps because, during his 2003-to-2007 tenure, Romney failed to impress much of anyone.
"His favorability was basically a straight line down from his honeymoon," said David Paleologos, director of Suffolk University's Political Research Center and a longtime Massachusetts pollster. "Sometimes familiarity breeds contempt." [...]
Romney entered the Massachusetts State House in January 2003 with a flashy favorability rating of 61 percent.... By November 2004, voters were souring, and a Suffolk poll found his favorable rating had dropped to 47 percent... By November 2006, as he closed out his increasingly absentee term, his overall job approval rating had cratered to 36 percent.
Thomas Whalen, a Boston University political science professor, put it this way: "To know Mitt Romney is to dislike him. That is the moral of the story."
Maybe he looks better in hindsight? No, Romney's former constituents still don't like him and still don't want him to be president.
Maybe it's because he was a GOP governor in a reliably "blue" state? No, Massachusetts has had plenty of modern Republican governors -- Weld, Cellucci, Swift -- and all were more popular with their Bay State constituents than Romney.
This is all generally overlooked, which is a shame because it seems pretty important.
We're talking about a politician who's held public office just once, for a grand total of four years. During that one term, his constituents got a good look at his leadership, and came to actively dislike him.
Romney looked at this and thought, "Hey, now I'm ready for a promotion to the White House!"
This is roughly the equivalent of North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D), who is stepping down after one term, burdened by a low approval rating, announcing that she's running for president in 2016.
This really ought to come up on the campaign trail more often. Here's the sample question reporters can ask Romney: why were you so woefully unpopular with your own constituents when voters gave you a chance to lead?
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The reason it isn't spoken of is the same reason he doesn't keep his old positions: the inconvenient past (and truths) are irrelevant to him, only the Mitt of today.
He strikes me as supremely arrogant. And Ann seems the same way.
I hope people who knew him then speak up about it.
Yes, one should think her "It's our turn now" to become residents of the WH would have generated a lot more comment than it did. And how about that quote about being glad that there are some women who have to work: "I love the fact that there are women out there who don't have a choice and must go to work and still raise kids..Thank goodness we value those people too..."
THOSE people? "We value those people too" -- as opposed to?
Mitt Romney's failures are because his policies are based on ideological fiction and not evidence-based facts.
This is a common reason why highly religious people fail in endevors where training and education do not cover all the variables.
Rachel,
I really like listening to you and reading your blogs. However, I really, really object to have to listen to Artis Brown speaking unsupported information for the gas companies.
Thanks for reading this.
Amen, especially when it is utter shullbit.
My favorite post of the week. I really enjoyed it. Romney really is just flat-out unlikable.
Highlights:
- "To know Mitt Romney is to dislike him..." Excellent.
- Romney looked at this and thought, "Hey, now I'm ready for a promotion to the White House!"
Nifty approval ratings chart on the Wiki page for his Governorship. Check out where and how fast the 21 point drop came! I found that very interesting... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governorship_of_Mitt_Romney#Approval_ratings_as_governor
Axelrod is giving us a preview of the counter argument to Romney's claim that he is better suited to run the country. Romney thinks his argument about his abilities at managing the economy is going to carry him to the White House. If Romney is going to claim his credentials as a businessman make him better qualified as President, then his tenure as Massachusetts governor demonstrate he is not more qualified. His jobs record as governor is dismal despite his business experience. No doubt there will be other statistics that are going to be used against Romney. If he loses this argument in the eyes of the voters, then he has no real argument for change in the White House.
The new republican super hero "Plastic Man" Romney,is as phony as the day is long.He claims he can "fix"the economy.How? With the same Bush policies that caused the economy to collapse in 2008? Smoke and mirrors are on the horizon if he is elected. He claims he learned lessons along the way during his time at Bain Capital, when he was closing factories and killing jobs.He claimed he felt bad when people lost their jobs when he shut the doors of their companies.He felt bad all the way to his Swiss and Cayman Island tax dodging bank accounts.He has no qualms about burdening the poor,middle class,and the elderly while making the wealthy wealthier, including him and his "five sons".I would hope peoples memories improve enough to recall "The Bush Years" because it would be a carbon copy of what will happen under " Plastic Man" Romney.
I noticed that too. Romney really glossed over his time as governor.
He mentioned his "experience" as governor of Mass in the clown car debates. he ended up making the liberals hate him more for being too conservative and the conservatives hate him more for being too liberal. When, in reality, all he did was go with the flow and flip flop. Big surprises there, eh?
I guess he didn't want to mention "Romnycare" in his big speech. Not unless he wants to mention something he might have actually tried to DO for someone who wasn't sitting on a golden cushion. That would look bad to his cronies. he ruined all that, anyway...
But he bragged about Cutting Spending. meanwhile, Mass suffered from that, in medicine, education, infrastructure, everything. And then instead of someone decent to take over for Kennedy we got the Scott Brown idiot or something. What a FALL for Mass. I sent money to Elizabeth Warren. Anyone reading this who hasn't youtubed her should do it right now. Too bad she is not running the country. I opened a new FB group today:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/322414361158571/
"If Mitt Romney wins (G-d Forbid) we are leaving the country."
You close with "Here's the sample question reporters can ask Romney: why were you so woefully unpopular with your own constituents when voters gave you a chance to lead?"
I agree that Romney needs to be asked this, but at the same time, they should be asking his constituents about their experience with Romney. His own reply will be defensive in nature, and most likely a telling one in contrast with the experience of those he governed.
It really surprises me how little has been made of Romney's lack of experience. Hell. Palin had more experience and she quit before her term as governor finished (she was also a Mayor, which puts her above Romney).
Not only that, but he has won only one political race in his life. And yet the Republicans considered him a good enough politician to go up against Obama?
Last night in his speech Mitt Romney said "we will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the taxpayers they serve"....Really Willard, so you, Congress, Senate and all Governors, State Senators that make better pay and have incredible benefits...will all go to say Minimum Wage and no insurance like the vast majority? Works for me!
As I read between the lines of the written transcript of the speech I saw sooo many things, missed as he spoke, but this really stood out!
Maybe it was romneycare that caused the economy in mass. to get worse.
To know, know, know him
Is to dis-, dis-like him
To see what we'd get
See Mass'chusetts' regret
To know, know, know him
Is to dis-, dis-like him
And I do (oo-ooo...oo-ooo)
...///...
Oh, Mr. Etch-a-Sketch
Mostly, you make me retch
Everyone says there'll come a day
When you'll just go away
Yes just to know him
Is to dis-,dis-like him
And I do (oo-ooo...oo-ooo)
...///...
Why can't he see
How blind can he be
Someday he will see
That he won't lead the country
...///...
To know, know, know him
Is to dis-, dis-like him
If we vote him in
Soon comes much chagrin
To know, know, know him
Is to dis-, dis-like him
And I do (oo-ooo...oo-ooo)
Mitt was a horrible governor, but if anyone thinks government in general, state government or the governor in particular, creates jobs, I have a phony grass roots organization created by Mr. Astroturf (aka David Axelrod) I'd like you to join, if you can find it, that is. http://motherjones.com/mojo/2008/03/astroturf-axelrod
I guess because the pols take credit for the good economy, for which they are equally not responsible, they have to take the heat for the bad. Such is life in the silly season.
Mitt biggest problem as governor wasn't that he was a bad at it - it was that he had almost no interest in being governor. He spent more time out of state than here and when out of state, he bad-mouthed Massachusetts. That is the what people here remember about him.
And if your research shows Jane Swift was more popular than Romney, well, than he had to be worse than I remember. I don't think you could even find a Republican here that would speak up for her record; Romney does have his supporters.
Patty
I don't trust him as a businessman because he was born wealthy. He didn't work for it. Romney wants to claim his father's success as his own, but the truth of the matter is that Romney wasn't successful; he actually had it all dropped in his lap. This man has not one shred of credibility when it comes to becoming successful in the US, creating jobs, running government, or being a leader. It's obvious that he was a spoiled brat as a child because he's entitled, arrogant, unable or unwilling to see reality for what it is, and not terribly clever
OMG - please - why didn't this get out? Please David - someone get this out there before the crackpots put him in charge of our lives! I have never trusted Mitt's face - he always looks like he is looking down on you.
Help us all!
Here is local news coverage of Romney's last day in office as Gov. of MA. Commentator says "over half of the people don't think he was a very good governor":
http://buyingourfuture.com/romneys-legacy-as-governor-left-office-with-34-approval-rating-in-massachusetts/