Mitt Romney's job for the last six years has been running for President. And yet, his campaign involves one inept gaffe after another. Say what you will about his proposals, but he's a terrible campaigner- it's just one gaffe after another, and every punch he does throw, none of them land.
I mean, think about what you do for a living, and how much better you've gotten at it in the last six years. For one thing, you had to, right? Or you would have been fired a long time ago. And yet, Mr Romney is still stuck in first gear. Inept is the word that describes him best.
It makes me wonder how he ever got successful in business... well, his Bain stuff involved borrowing tons of other people's money to buy companies, putting the debt onto those companies, charging them millions in "management fees", and selling (i.e. skipping town) before the bills came due. It worked for him and his investors. So some people would call that a success. But it's not exactly what people think of when we think of running a business, is it.
He did save the Salt Lake Olympics... well, sort of--- he did so by taking a huge government bailout. The Salt Lake games cost more taxpayer dollars than every other US Olympics combined--- LA (twice), Lake Placid (twice), Squaw Valley, and Atlanta. So, we can debate whether or not he built that, but we can agree that again, this is not exactly what people think of when we think of a "successful businessman".
But at least he governed Massachusetts for a while, compromising with a very Democratic legislature to cut taxes and government services in order to reduce a budget deficit. As Mr Romney will tell you, that's the road to economic prosperity. Well, we did get rid of the deficit, but we didn't get the prosperity--- Massachusetts slid to the bottom five in job creation during Romney's tenure, and people felt glum about their prospects. And that was before the recession (MA has turned around since the recession).
He did get Romneycare passed, though. If you aren't aware, Romneycare is like Obamacare, except that Romneycare also covers abortions, while Obamacare does not. Now, the health insurance mandate has turned out to work very well--- I think 98% of Bay Staters now have insurance, many with state assistance, and costs have risen much less than the rest of the country. Truly something to be proud of. It's too bad his party platform is such that he can't tout his accomplishment.
So, I guess he hasn't been completely unsuccessful in his life, so there's that. I mean, he's certainly been successful from his perspective. That's all fine and well, but it's not his perspective that each of us is voting on. It's ours. From my perspective, I see someone who's managed to mediocre his way to the top. The last Republican president had a similar trajectory but worse--- practically everything he had done was a dismal failure, even for investors. But he served for two terms and wasn't so bad, right? ... oh.
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note: I guess this diary is really written for an audience much broader than Kossacks... I mean, all of us here know that Romney sucks, and for all sorts of reasons. I guess this diary is really intended for undecideds and lean-right people, to undermine their confidence in Romney (I'm putting this on facebook later, as well). Yet, I'm sharing it here because I think it raises a point for our side that we haven't heard much about... that when you think about it, Romney has not been very successful in ways we think about success. Because of that, he's a prime example of what's wrong with the state of American meritocracy.