According to the Boston Globe article: The story behind Mitt Romney’s loss (http://www.boston.com/...), the Romney campaign is flailing the emerged meme that the principal problem with the Romney campaign was that they, for various reasons, chose not to define himself. This left the Obama campaign the luxury of defining him as a socially awkward, venture capitalist who was disinterested in the wellbeing of others and who had dedicated his life to the pursuit of lucre regardless of the negative social consequences of his actions (as opposed presumably to other businessmen – such as Warren Buffet -- who had a social consciousness and who were interested in creating businesses with jobs which benefited American society as a whole). According to this conservative meme, Romney was in fact a man of deep warmth, moral conviction and social consciousness and he could have won if only America had discovered the truth.
I disagree with this contention. As a Mormon, I think that I have an accurate take on what type of man Mr. Romney is. Being raised in Utah, I know that Mormonism (as with other very conservative Christian religions) put heavy (although not exclusive) emphasis on familial – especially sexual – fidelity. I have no doubt that Mr. Romney is a man of personal, religious consciousness who is completely dedicated to his religion and family. I certainly think this is admirable. However it has been noted that Mormonism places little emphasis upon general, social consciousness and business integrity. As someone well acquainted with Mr. Romney, I was never confused about what type of man Mr. Romney was.
Matt Taibbi in his Rolling Stone article – Greed and Debt: The true story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital (http://www.rollingstone.com/...), outlined the type of capitalist that I believe Mitt Romney was and which is completely consistent with the beliefs of Mr. Romney and many people raised like him. Although Mr. Romney would never be unfaithful to his marital vows, earning money at any cost is moral and good. After all, the purpose of Bain Capital (in Mr. Romney's own words) was to “harvest” companies, not to build them. There is a place for this in capitalism, but it was completely consistent with the definition of Mr. Romney created by the Obama campaign and it was a fatal mistake for the Republicans to nominate a venture capitalist in light of the economic crises of 2008.
To put it bluntly, one cannot effectively rebut the truth and the truth is that Mitt Romney was an amoral venture capitalist. It wasn't an error for the Romney campaign not to re-define himself, because Mr. Romney and his campaign knew that it would have been futile. I wish the press would address this point rather than just putting forward the meme that the Romney campaign could have, should have, would have responded to the Obama assault.
