Mitt Romney: What Were You Thinking?

By Rich Kozlovich

Editor's Note: Well, it appears Mitt is trying to show the world why he should have been chosen as President of the United States, but in fact demonstrated how unqualified he is to be in charge of anything.  Just because he was successful in business and did some good work at organizing the Olympics, doesn't mean he's a leader. 

Just because a bean counter is good at counting beans doesn't make him a good manager, and just because someone is a good manager doesn't make him a visionary or a leader.  Nor does it mean he's capable of inspiring others.  Mitt is incapable of any of that, he just counts beans and manages the direction everyone decided to go, and he's good at that, but Mitt is the kind of man who stands on a mountain waving a flag that says, "I stand for consensus", and expects everyone to get all excited and follow him.

His credibility is now zero, even to the leftists who are promoting his epiphany. They'll happily turn on him like rattlesnakes when it becomes convenient and they know he'll whimper, sniffle and grovel to get their approval once again.

He goes on to excoriate Trump for his character, but everyone knew who Trump was before they elected him, and any criticism of Trump's character before he was elected to office is (unlike all the corrupt people in government, including Harry Reid,  who, as far as I can ascertain, Romney never said a word about while they were in office) is immaterial at this point. 

I've posted links to articles with some of the comments below. If you wish to read the entire article follow the links.  But to be clear, everything after this until my final comments are the works of others. 

Please enjoy!  RK

 

This picture appeared in American Greatness

Mark Davis posts an open letter to Romney saying: In your campaign, you gave the people of Utah (and the rest of America) reason to believe you had evolved past your harsh remarks of March 2016, when you scolded millions of voters who had by then made Donald Trump the frontrunner. What in the world were you thinking? Your Post piece laments global “dismay,” “tribalism” and “fear,” the frayed index cards of Trump-haters on the left and pseudo-right.

You are mightily dismayed by the ruffled feathers of European elitism. You are alarmed that “democratic institutions” are somehow withering. And you obviously see a desire for strong borders as “anti-immigrant.” I don’t recall you enlightening Utah voters with that chestnut in the home stretch of your election campaign. You complain about disunity while fomenting it"…….."your op-ed tantrum was nothing of the kind. It was a querulous rant that served only to energize and enable the left, as well as the President’s enemies still suggesting they reside on the right.  

It was the hope of millions that you would not join that last group. There is a reason Jeff Flake slinked away from office as the most disliked Republican in recent memory. 

J. Marsolo says: Here’s a man who was defeated by Obama, who allegedly is on the opposite pole of Romney but“showed no fight against Obama in 2012”………Romney did not fight back when Harry Reid falsely accused him of not paying his income taxes.  But Mitt has no problem attacking PresidentTrump.  Evidently, Romney spent the Christmas and New Year holidays composing an op-ed for the Washington Post in which he so unfairly attacks President Trump that even the National Review criticized him………. “If Romney had valid concerns about President Trump's conduct and policies, then the honorable conduct would have been to speak to President Trump privately.But Romney decided to write an article for the Washington Post. Maybe Romney wants a job at MSNBC.” Romney must believe that the Hate Trump Media will embrace him as they embraced John McCain before he ran against Obama. But Mitt will learn that nobody respects a traitor, and the Hate Trump Media will dispose of Romney after they use him up. 

Dov Fischer posted this article And Now the Bane of the Capitol Returns With His Etch-a-Sketch Screen saying: Mr. Nice Guy never learns.…………Mitt Romney somehow became the 2012 Presidential nominee of the Republican Party in the Year That America Wanted to Obliterate Obamacare. Of all the dim points in all the towns in all the world, he walks into our election — the one and only Republican in world history who had crafted, enacted, and implemented a government-run health plan that overlapped Obamacare. The one person in America who could not denounce Obamacare in the Year That America Wanted to Obliterate Obamacare. Romney — the candidate who made dollars… but no sense.  Romney Lost an Election That Was His for the Taking….. Now six years have passed. Like a bad dream…… 

Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and employer of self-deporting Latino gardeners, now enters as the junior senator from Utah, ready to remake himself for his public, replete with Etch-a-Sketch screen. Nature abhors a vacuum, and with the two Senatorial Republican “Never Trumpers” Jeff Flake and Bob Corker now gone, Romney surges towards the Never Trump mantle. He now will be the bane of the capitol………  

Nice Mitt Romney blighted America with four extra years of Obama. It now is time for him to take a back bench as a junior senator and to show some humility. If he has advice for President Trump, he has access; he does not have to smear him in the Washington Post. If he wants to be regarded as a statesman, he can act like one by aiming higher than the accolades of Washington Post editors.  

There are enough Never Trumpers and Trump haters in the Washington Post universe. No one needs this newcomer from Utah to join under the evil tabernacle of that WaPo choir.

Matthew Vadum is more specific in his evaluation calling it: Romney’s Betrayal, The new senator takes the low road. He goes on to say: with a singularly impressive record of failure in public life under his belt, the always-predictable virtue-signaler Willard Mitt Romney has chosen to take the low road, beginning his freshman term in the United States Senate by stabbing President Trump and his fellow Republicans in the back. 

Instead of, say, waiting a brief time to get settled into his new office as Utah senator, the former Massachusetts governor, who to this day refuses to apologize for his Bay State government healthcare program that inspired Obamacare, took to the pages of the Washington Post two days before his swearing-in to attack the “character” of someone who as president has been generous, forgiving, and supportive of him.…….

Romney embraced the leftist critique of Trump, hurling every leftist smear he could think of and bashing the president for his mastery of social media, a field Romney barely grasps…………….. 

Firmly aligning himself with lawless, out-of-control Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Trump’s other enemies, the ungrateful Romney echoed the complaints of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and the Weekly Standard crowd, calling the president a liar and a coward.

Trump may not be perfect, but unlike Romney, the 45 th president is a fighter who gets things done. Trump got historic tax cuts enacted, placed two new conservative justices on the Supreme Court, slashed government regulations, moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, renegotiated NAFTA, and repealed the individual mandate in Obamacare. The wall on the U.S.-Mexico border may not yet be underway, but it is obvious that a squishified President Romney never would have been brave enough to force a government shutdown to win funding to guarantee border security……….. Then there is Romney’s breathtakingly imbecilic reading of world affairs under Trump.  “ America has long been looked to for leadership. 

Romney wrote. Our economic and military strength was part of that, of course, but our enduring commitment to principled conduct in foreign relations, and to the rights of all people to freedom and equal justice, was even more esteemed………..Romney seems to forget here that Donald Trump is not the president of Europe. How he polls in Europe is completely irrelevant to Americans.

Daniel John Sobieski In his aticle, Et Tu, Mitt? says: Today the roles of Bob Corker and Jeff Flake will be played by the freshman Senator from Utah, Willard Mitt Romney. Romney is previously known for playing the role of Brutus in the play Julius Caesar 

Perhaps President Trump should be as wary of entering the Senate chambers as Julius Caesar should have been that fateful day in the Roman Senate. While Trump’s physical safety is assured, character assassins like Romney await…….Running your campaign like you are running for class president is a losing strategy for presidential politics. Running one like you are in a bar fight for the future of this nation as Trump did is a winner. I want Trump on my side in a bar fight. If I need to figure out which fork to use at dinner, I’ll ask Mitt Romney………..The American people want more than someone who looks good in a suit. They want a President who gets things done, who enacts their agenda. …………. 

Resentment? Enforcing the nation’s immigration laws and building a border wall is not racism. Just ask the family of police office Ronil Singh, a legal immigrant whose dreams were shattered by an illegal alien. And how many times must Trump denounce racism in all its forms to satisfy Romney and the others? This is the President in his Inaugural Address spoke of race in terms Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King would echo……….. 

Michael Walsh posted this article, Stuckin the Middle with Mitt, saying:  If there’s one thing about Donald Trump all right-thinking folks can wholeheartedly celebrate, it’s the way he’s made the masks slip on so many alleged conservatives.   

Not coincidentally, these judgments generally are delivered after the demise of the Republican in question (John McCain, George H.W. Bush); in life, of course, they were vilified as sadistic plutocrats who happily caused the deaths of millions of women, children, minorities, and other living things, while marveling in privileged wonder at checkout scanners and having putative affairs with lobbyists not their wives.

Failing death, the next best path to rehabilitation and redemption is to take a shot at the man who accomplished what you failed to do twice—win the White House. And that is the path that the ineffable, “severely conservative” Willard Mitt Romney has chosen as he takes his Senate seat from Michigan Massachusetts New Hampshire California Utah this week.

You remember Mitt: the man who a) courageously decided not to run for re-election as governor of Massachusetts because he knew he would lose, b) lost the GOP nomination in 2008 to the left-for-dead candidate John McCain, and c) lost the 2012 election to Obama after winning the first debate and refusing to challenge the obvious electoral hinkiness in Ohio that still has Karl Rove scratching his head.

In an op-ed in the Washington Post, the recrudescent Romney blasted the man he once begged to nominate him for secretary of state as he publicly announced his candidacy for the office of the Media’s Shadow President. That unpleasantness about the dog on the roof, or bullying the gay kid in prep school? All forgotten now!..........But once rebuffed, Mitt pivoted, ran for the U.S. Senate, won, and now stands ready to inherit the mantle of Bob Corker and Jeff Flake as the only living Republicans the media will quote with approval. That both of their political careers ended thanks to their opposition to Trump doesn’t seem to have occurred to him.

Mark Amadeus Notturno in his post entitled, Little Bit of Hubris , says: Mitt must think he would have won in 2016.So how should we think about it? The one the president, but not quite presidential enough in the other’s eyes. The other, oh so presidential, the very portrait of a president, but for some reason not quite actually president. The one thinks that he has ‘the mantle’ of the office and is qualified to say that the other doesn’t. But he seems to forget that he never quite had the office itself. And the kicker is when he writes, “It is well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the Republican presidential nomination."

And now you’re back, or desperately trying to be back, with that smile upon your face, and a mantle that might just be too big for you. Or is it, perhaps, that you have grown too big for your mantle? Whichever the case, it is essential to remember that you go to democracy with the voters you actually have, and not the voters that you wish you had. I voted for you in 2012. But a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then and I would not vote for you this time around. Nothing personal. But you should realize that you are bound to lose this fight, and in a none too presidential way, if you pick it — and that you will lose it to a man whom you firmly believe is odious and your inferior in every way, the same way Old Papa Bush believed that Bubba was his inferior in every way. But it’s your choice and you should go for it if you really think it is something you must do.

Robert Arvay has thoughts about the neocon Romney.  Yes, Mitt. It is well known. All too well known. And what to say? Didn’t anyone tell you? And how exactly to break the news, now so long after the fact? “Yes Mitt. But it also well known that despite your mantle and despite your own assessment of your own presidentiality, you were not quite the American people’s choice to be president either.” …………

The classic stereotype of dishonesty and deception involves the used car salesman. In my case, the allusion became literal.  After having found myself aghast at the obvious and blatant lies told by a salesman, I walked out of the car lot, knowing he was just wasting my time. Later on, I was listening to a televised speech made by Bill Clinton and quickly got exactly the same feeling.  I switched off the television and have never again listened to anything the Clintons say.  They're lying. Why waste my time?.......but this time, it's not just the Democrats. To my dismay, I have belatedly come to the conclusion that the great majority of politicians are just what their dismal stereotype says they are:  self-serving, hypocritical cheats (many expletives deleted).  They're lying. As the crew of the Titanic tries to plug the holes, the politicians, who caused the sinking, are looting the ship's safe and bribing the crew to reserve the lifeboats to prevent the riffraff from climbing into them.”

Monica Showalter one of my favorite writers notes: Mitt Romney backtracks after Trump-hating op-ed attack bombs. Arriving in Washington for his new gig as Utah's junior senator, Mitt Romney jumped right in to revert to form, putting out a Washington Post attack op-ed decrying President Trump's lack of "character" and calling on Republicans to reach across the aisle.

Gad, his act is old…………Now he's backtracking.  Same old Mitt……..It shows that his potshot against Trump bombed, particularly with Republicans, who were all out there and ready to be his friend but can now see that he's got other priorities, such as filling the towering boots of.......Jeff Flake.

Man, that is making him unpopular. Here's what his own niece, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, had to tweet about it: "For an incoming Republican freshman senator to attack as their first act feeds into what the Democrats and media want and is disappointing and unproductive[.]"………..Newt Gingrich responded: "The Senate doesn't care who you used to be."

Here is what Rand Paul told Fox News, as transcribed by RealClearPolitics: "I don't know how it really helps anybody's cause for people to stand up there like they're holier than thou,"……"And it's like, look at me, how virtuous I am. And I`m going to bring down the presidency by criticizing his character in front of the whole nation." "It does nobody any good," he added. "And, in the end, I think it's going to look petty, and I think there's going to be a backlash to this."………

Such a smarmy, self-righteous, and utterly boring opening number.  Did he really think such a politically tone-deaf attack would make him popular?  It shows that Mitt hasn't changed a bit in all these years.  Just as Trump can be best understood as a typical hotel chain owner running his empire like a Detroit fire department, resolving crisis after crisis and not being subtle about it, Romney can best be understood as something less sympathetic: as the sneaky management consultant ensconced with the corporate honchos upstairs, plotting how many "useless" workers to lay off.

Showalter goes on to say in this piece, Romney still backtracking, but maybe that's because he's got a more malevolent plan.  After caving a bit on his opening volley at President Trump, Mitt Romney is still on his backfoot, trying to explain again that he's really a nice, reasonable guy, because apparently the day earlier's retreat on CNN, didn't quite work.  

Here's his new statement, trying to explain out that nasty attack he wrote in the Washington Post the other day as just namby pamby stuff about working together on stuff he agrees with and working apart on stuff he doesn't. Oh, give us a break.

An attack like that, targeting President Trump right down to his character, isn't a thing about agreeing and disagreeing.

Where were Romney's character criticisms against President Obama, who spied on reporters, sent the IRS to target Tea Party dissidents, and then used the FBI and a phony foreign dossier paid for by the Democrats to try to derail candidate Donald Trump? Where were Romney's character scoldings on Obama officials' unmaskings of innocent Americans caught up in spy dragnets, or Hillary Clinton's illegal private server, set up to evade Freedom of Information Act public record requirements? Where was Romney when James Comey was laying out his hypocrisies all over the place as he touted his virtue? He seems to only get excited when the target is Trump. 

And that puts his credibility at zero. 

He's going to need to show a lot of agreeing before anyone is going to believe him about the 'working together' claim. When is he going to understand that we are tired of all the attacks on President Trump and think he deserves better? If we wanted attacks on Trump, we'd go to the Democrats. 

Editor's Notes:  As you read these comments, and hopefully read the articles, it brings us back to the original question.  Mitt Romney: What were thinking? 

Actually, I know what he's thinking.  He thinks he should be President of the United States and believes the nation needs him and wants him to be that man.  And he's as delusional as John Kasich who believes the same thing.  Both of whom have stunningly unstable political views. 

Make no mistake about it.  Mitt is arrogant, smarmy, ignorant and arrogant in his ignorance, just like his neocon and leftist buddies.  But Mitt will start to crawdad quickly because he's not a man with the courage to be the rock in the current.

He's a go along to get along guy, an internationalist and an elitist. He's just like the officers I knew in the service ...."special"... surrounded by other "special people" living in an echo chamber of self congratulating head nodders, and all others are "not special people" they can push around with impunity. 

But the fact of the matter is they're all go along to get along guys rowing with whatever direction the tide flows.  Give them a mission and they will get it done, but don't ask them to be courageous visionaries.   As a group, they're incapable of it, and the generals who've worked for Trump and then left give ample evidence of that. A life time of going along to get along makes it impossible for their minds to work any other way.  The habits of a life time are as strong as life itself.

And make no mistake about this.  Romney was not in this alone.  He needs adoration and affirmation, and I believe he got it from all the other Never-Trumpers and RINO's who convinced him he could emerge and be their savior for the Republican party.

Did he think he was really going to rally the Republican party around him against Trump?  Yes, he did.  But Mitt needs approval or he's lost, and right now he's lost, and he hates being the voice in the wilderness. In the military enlisted men have to put up with a lot of crap from officers, but this isn't the military and we're not enlisted men. If you smack someone out here, you get smacked right back, and just as hard as possible.

Actually the real question all this should bring into mind is this. 

Utah:  What were you thinking? RK