Nomination 2012: Mitt Romney

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Here we are again with another installment of “Nomination 2012.” This time we are putting the spotlight on Republican candidate Mitt Romney. The former governor of my home state of Massachusetts has been called a major player in the presidential race. His charisma, business savvy, and affability work in his favor as he battles the other candidates for the White House. He seems like he has an answer for everything. Nothing seems to rattle him at all. The word suave continues to pop up in my head. Smarmy does too, not sure which one to go with though. Sadly, sound bites and promotional ads shouldn’t be where we get the bulk of our information from. Sure we want a president who looks like he will fit into politics almost eerily well with an overwhelming sense of confidence. JFK had that by the truckload. But what else do we know about him? Hopefully, after reading this, you will know a lot more.

Willard Mitt Romney, the son of former Governor of Michigan George Romney, grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan but was born in Detroit. His family and friends were most definitely affluent if not, at the very least, notable. In fact, he was named after J. Willard Marriott. Yes, that’s right the owner of Marriott Hotels was George’s best friend. Mitt was entrenched in success and money from very early on. When Mitt was five his father became the CEO of American Motors thus creating a legacy of saving companies from the edge of bankruptcy. It is a sure bet that his father was his role model. Despite this wealthy upbringing Mitt attended public school until seventh grade when he transferred to Cranbrook; a private school. There he was picked out as the only kid believing in Mormonism by kids that were even more wealthy than he. If Mitt Romney becomes our next president he will again be picked out as the only Mormon because this country has never had one as its leader.

Mitt wasn’t an athletic child like Tim Pawlenty was with his passion for Hockey. Instead he set his sights higher. He helped with his father’s campaign for governorship of Michigan by working at his father’s office and even attending the Republican National Convention in 1964 when he was 16 years old. Instead of playing sports, Mitt was more of a leader type and worked hard to be the Hockey team’s manager in his senior year at Cranbrook. He struggled with academics and athletics but it was clear even then that his charm was already well in place. He then went to Stanford during a time of turbulence in this country as protests regarding the draft and the Vietnam war were plaguing campuses everywhere. Mitt stood his ground and decided not to fall into the hippie manifesto. He protested against the protests against draft cards. To explain more clearly, he thought that protesting a random lottery system in which young kids were forced into a violent conflict that many have argued that the U.S. should never have been a part of was something that deserved to be protested. So in a way, he was protesting for the draft. After going to France for two years on a mission trip he found himself having difficulty turning the French onto a religion that doesn’t allow alcohol, smoking, or being generally hateful. These are all of France‘s biggest exports. He wasn’t able to turn the mission around like his father did for American Motors but he did get to the highest position that a missionary can; assistant to the mission president. Shortly after that, Mitt was involved in a car accident in France that took the life of the mission president’s wife.

With a heavy heart he battled back to earn respect for his religion and did baptize many people before he left France. He left with a deeper love of Jesus and couldn’t wait to get back and show his girlfriend who in the interim had also became a Mormon. Once he got back to the U.S., the two quickly married. After having a couple children, Mitt asked his father for advice on how he should continue his career path. George said to his son that law school was the way to go. Not surprising coming from a guy who was serving on Nixon’s cabinet. He probably was hoping his son could be a lawyer and defend him from all the charges against Nixon’s serpentine actions. So he went to Massachusetts and enrolled at Harvard. After graduating cum laude, the real consummate businessman showed up. He was hired by Bain & Company which was a consulting firm. Mitt was so great at this job as a management consultant and adapted to the principal of sticking by the business until it improves that within a few years he became vice president and eventually co-founded his own spin off, Bain Capital. You may know this firm as the ones who gave Staples their start.

It’s no surprise that Mitt Romney is a hell of a businessman. But where does he stand on the issues?

Abortion: Very much against it. He supports surplus embryo research but would love to sign a ban on all abortions.

Budget/Economy: He feels that only someone that worked in the private sector like he has can fix the economy. And true enough, he just might have the stones to do it. He feels that bailouts were a waste of money and that the government should  have let the companies go bankrupt. It seems like he is one of those guys that thinks we should just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps because only we can fix our own mess and the government will only make it worse.

Civil Rights: With his Mormon faith guiding a lot of his decision making you can guess that he doesn’t support gay marriage. He has also decided to not sign the “Marriage Vow.” Most likely due to it being campaign poison. He supported English only laws (mandate that employees only speak English on the job) but also ran campaign ads in Spanish. On top of that he supports Employment Non Discrimination Acts. I don’t know how one can support both sides like that and keep a straight face.

Drugs and Crime: He supports higher penalties for drunk driving and death penalties for heinous murders. Mitt feels that there wouldn’t be so much black on black crime if there were more moms and dads. Oh yeah? 50 Cent didn’t have a dad and look at him. He’s absolutely fine. He don’t walk with a limp.

Energy/Oil: Mitt feels we are too dependent on foreign oil and wants to take a stand against global warming calling it a global problem not just a U.S. problem. He wants to dedicate money to alternative energies new car technologies but also wants to drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve.

There are many more issues that I haven’t included but you can check out Mitt Romney’s stance on all of them here:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Mitt_Romney.htm

So how did he do as Governor of Massachusetts? It must have been tough to be a conservative in such a liberal state.

He picked his cabinet very carefully like a CEO would for his company. It wasn’t about political party affiliation it was more about management style. Massachusetts had a 1.5 billion dollar deficit when Romney was sworn in and thru his economic maneuvering, 3 years later there was a 700 million dollar surplus. So you have to hand it to him there. By cutting state spending, property taxes rose and state aid to cities and towns were cut back as well. But Mitt was on a mission. He wanted to bring the closest version of universal health care to Massachusetts; “RomneyCare.” He wanted to do this because he was told that 385 million dollars of budgetary cuts were impending due to the state not cutting back on treating uninsured patients.

Eventually he was able to sign in the Massachusetts Health Reform Law which stated that all residents must have health care or suffer the loss of their personal income tax exemption. If you are unable to afford health care then your costs would be covered by a separate fund designed for that purpose. A lot of people have compared this to  “ObamaCare.” He also went beyond his personal beliefs (however often they may conflict) and supported gay marriage as it was what the state wanted regardless of his religion’s feelings on the subject.

To read more on Mitt Romney check out this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney

Mitt is a very interesting character. He is very tycoon-ish. He’s like a god fearing Gordon Gecko. He has the ability to take on new information and change his mind if it is what the people want. But he also has that cutthroat spirit in him to protect the people on top for the good of the business. Unfortunately, between special interest groups, foreign dependencies and our national debt this country has become one big business. Hopefully Mitt Romney as leader wouldn’t mean a bunch of us getting laid off for the good of the management.

To get involved with Mitt Romney’s Campaign:
http://www.mittromney.com/

Let me know if you have any suggestions for things you want to know about the candidates. Or maybe you have a specific candidate in mind that you want to see profiled. Or maybe you just want to tell me how poor of a profile this was. In any case, leave some comments, share with your friends and enjoy the electronic commerce.