Money And a Nice Haircut Aren’t Enough

Whatever will Carl Lindner, Richard Farmer and the rest of Greater Cincinnati’s well-heeled arch-conservatives do now?

As this blog predicted in early September, Mitt Romney finally realized today that he doesn't appeal to a broad cross-section of Americans and has no chance of winning the presidency, so he dropped out of the race.

At a speech in Washington, D.C., Romney said, "If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Sen. Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

The fact that the disingenuous Romney parrots such obviously false rhetoric to the end is just one factor about why he’d make a bad choice for commander-in-chief. The former Massachusetts governor has a long history of flip-flopping on virtually every major issue for political convenience, enough to give Bill Clinton a fight for the adjective, “slick.”

With conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter gushing over Romney in recent weeks, it’s obvious that while they might be willing to turn a blind eye to Romney’s checkered record, it just doesn’t sit well with most Americans.

Romney’s history of back-peddling is long and sordid.

Romney now opposes gay marriage although he once publicly supported equal rights for gays and lesbians; he once criticized Pat Robertson and his influence within the GOP, but appeared on The 700 Club to curry favor since jumping into the presidential race.

Also, Romney now backs state-led efforts at outlawing abortion, despite previously stating he supports the Roe vs. Wade legal decision and declaring in his failed 1994 Senate race against Ted Kennedy that abortion should be “safe and legal in this country;” he backed a universal health care proposal while Massachusetts governor but now is against implementing such a system nationally.

Greater Cincinnati’s Republican elite, long smitten with George W. Bush, had enthusiastically pushed Romney as his rightful successor. Local supporters included Lindner, Farmer, Cintas executive Bob Kohlhepp; former Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich; Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Bortz; former Convergys CEO Jim Orr; restaurateur Jeff Ruby; Realtor Rob Sibcy; and attorney Paul Muething.

It will be interesting to watch whether this crowd will throw their money behind another likely loser, Mike Huckabee, or hold their noses and open their wallets for Sen. John McCain.

— Kevin Osborne

Comments

[Political Junkie]

You don't suppose McCain will pick Romney as his running mate to draw in the conservatives, do you? I do, and that scares me.

[David E. Gallaher]

Abraham Lincoln took his office as a US Representative in 1847 as a member of the Whig Party.
Never heard of the US Whig Party?
A generation or two from now, young folks will not have heard of the Republican Party, which was later founded by Lincoln.
How ironic is it that our first black President (Obama) shall have slayed it?