The belittling of Romney doesn’t cease

(Note: Below, a commenter, confirming my point about the belittling of Romney, calls him “mediocre,” and I reply.)

This story appeared in today’s New York Sun and elsewhere

By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—A Republican campaign dropout, Mitt Romney, agreed today to endorse Senator McCain for the party’s presidential nomination and ask his national convention delegates to swing behind the party front-runner, according to officials familiar with the decision.

Since when is a candidate who has campaigned hard and honorably across the country, who outlasted several major candidates better known than himself, but who was finally beaten, and then left the race—something that happens to every single candidate who doesn’t win—gratuitously sneered at as a “dropout”?

In ways small and large, subtle and obvious, there is a bigotry against Romney, on both the left and the right. It is an ugly thing to see. The worst part of it is the lack of basic fairness that it shows—which in turn shows a lack of conscience. If you disapprove of someone, then attack him straight out. Don’t use belittling phrases about him. That’s wrong. Yet it’s been ubituitous in the coverage of Romney.

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Steven Warshawsky writes:

It strikes me as obvious that Mitt Romney was a mediocre presidential candidate, who only looked good in contrast to the other Republican choices. (He was my fourth choice, but I preferred him to McCain.) Yes, Romney is smart and handsome, but he has a mixed political track record and appears to lack deep conservative principles, which manifested itself in uninspiring speeches and largely liberal Republican policy positions. McCain, for all his enormous faults, has a much more compelling public persona, and appeared to “want it more” than Romney. In addition, Romney failed to attack McCain’s liberal voting record with the gusto it deserved, let alone reject McCain’s doomed support for 100 more years of American occupation of Iraq—because Romney basically agrees with McCain’s positions on these and most other issues. In hindsight, it is not so surprising that more voters opted for McCain. He may have less brain power than Romney, but he displayed more “passion” and “character.” Lastly, if Republicans pin their hopes for 2012 or 2016 on Romney, they might as well dissolve the party now. Romney, at best, would an incremental improvement over GWB. Hardly the kind of candidate that the Republican Party should be cultivating over the next eight years.

LA replies:

Steven is entitled to his opinions, and I agree with him on several counts. But how anyone can describe an outstandingly talented individual like Romney as “mediocre” in any sense is beyond me. If you don’t trust him, if you think he’s too liberal, if you think he’s inauthentic, fine. Whether I agree with you or not, there are reasonable grounds for saying those things. But to call Romney “mediocre” is so wildly off-base that it proves beyond a doubt the existence of the ubiquitous, irrational, and deeply unfair prejudice against Romney which I’ve discussed and lamented so often. There is something about him that triggers some negative reaction in many people, blinding them to his manifest abilities, and making it impossible for them to acknowledge anything good about him or even to be minimally fair to him. I think it’s wrong, and I object to it very much. And if it hadn’t been for this small-minded, irrational prejudice against Romney among so many conservatives, we would not now be facing the miserable prospect of John McCain as the GOP nominee.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 14, 2008 03:14 PM | Send