The founding prophet of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, declared his candidacy for the presidency in 1844. Mitt Romney’s father, Michigan governor George Romney, ran a full-scale campaign for the presidency in 1967-68. Three years earlier, George Romney was nominated at the 1964 convention as a “favorite son“ candidate, with his teenage son Mitt on the convention floor supporting him. Arizona Democratic Congressman Mo Udall, a Mormon, made a run in 1976. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, another Mormon, threw his hat into the ring against the Bush machine in 2000.
In only one of these races did the Mormon candidate come close to the nomination--George Romney’s 1968 run. Romney was actually the GOP frontrunner for most of 1967, and with that status, his faith became a topic for a delicate sort of scrutiny.
There are a couple of lessons in George Romney’s campaign, but none unique to it: Gaffes can kill campaigns. Allies can switch sides. Difficult wars make for difficult interviews. What George Romney’s campaign didn’t have to deal with, though, was religious bigotry. The elder Romney just didn’t last long enough to see anyone try to raise a “Mormon objection” to his qualifications.
One veteran of the George Romney effort sent Mitt Romney an analysis of why George’s campaign floundered--an assessment that included 20 reasons why he lost. “One of them was not because he was a Mormon or people didn’t understand the Mormon Church or whatever,” Romney underscored.
A: Yes. I would like to see each state be able to make its own decision regarding abortion rather than have a one-size-fits-all blanket pronouncement by the Supreme Court.
Q: Would you have a “litmus test” of any sort when it came to nominees for the Supreme Court?
A: I think we’d all like to apply a litmus test. Each of us would like to say, “Here are all the decisions that are going to come up. How will you vote?” But I don’t think that’s the process that you’re going to see employed by me or, frankly, by others as well. Doing it that way would make it very difficult for the nominee to be confirmed. There will not be a litmus test. Instead, there will be a philosophical test, which is: “Is this a person who follows the law, who abides by the Constitution, who will strictly construe the Constitution as intended, or is this a person who looks to expand upon the Constitution to ‘write’ laws without the benefit of legislation?”
“In my life at that time I didn’t get drafted,” he continued. “I was eligible for the draft. I would have served in the military if drafted, but I wasn’t drafted. My course was a different course, and perhaps because of the fact that I did not serve in the military I have a strong sense of a desire to serve in the public sector today.
“There is no question,” Romney concluded. “Those that served we owe a great debt of gratitude to.” Romney had a combination of deferments--a religious deferment covered his 2-1/2 years of missionary work in France, and then college deferment applied. Then most deferments were sacked in favor of a lottery, which in 1969 awarded Romney’s March 12 birthday the number 300.
Bainiacs, as they are called, are driven to succeed, and are a dogged group of Type AAAs. Bain’s slogan is: “Helping make companies more valuable.” The promise is profit. The promise is usually kept.
Bain became one of the most sought-after landing zones for Harvard Business School’s best and brightest, because Bain mattered; Bain changed things. “The idea that consultancies should not measure themselves by the thickness of their reports, or even the elegance of their writing, but rather by whether or not the report was effectively implemented [as Bain did], was the inflection point in the history of consulting,” Romney told Consulting magazine. Bain’s website cited a press quotation, “Bain delivers results, not theory.”
The significance of Romney’s Olympic stewardship for Romney’s presidential bid is much more in the stories he tells of the Games than in the awful numbers he and his colleagues confronted and reversed. Romney has got a box of business stories, but they cannot compare with the planning for the torch relay, or the tale of tempting the Today Show with a promise of a Romney run on the skeleton sled.
“I am pro-life,” Romney told me pointedly. He went on to explain how his campaigns have provided fodder for his 2008 opponents. “In my 1994 debate with Senator Kennedy he said that I was ‘multiple choice’ for which he got a good laugh because I would not say I was pro-choice. I said what I would do if I were elected senator, the same thing I said when I was running for governor. As governor, I indicated that I would not change the law as it related to abortion. I would keep it the same. I have had roughly four provisions that have reached my desk which would have changed the laws as they relate to abortion, all of which would have expanded abortion rights. I vetoed each of those. My record as governor has been very clearly a pro-life record.“
The Harvard Stem Cell Institute was seeking legal protection for an embryo production line for the purpose of creating and harvesting stem cells, and Romney refused his support. He said, “Lofty goals do not justify the creation of life for experimentation or destruction.”
Romney’s views would permit for research the use of embryos about to be destroyed by their parents; this puts him at odds with President Bush’s more restrictive position. Romney has never supported state-funded research on embryonic stem cells, and is a believer in the efficacy of alternative methods of producing stem cells.
When legislators waited until after the 2006 elections to recess with the intent of killing a proposed amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution restoring traditional marriage--an amendment that had been backed by 170,000 signatures & years of lobbying--Romney refused to go quietly. He organized a rally of thousands outside the capitol, blasting the legislators for refusing to allow a vote: “Last week, 109 legislators decided to abandon the constitution and violate their oath of office. For the constitution plainly states that when a qualified petition is placed before them, the legislature SHALL vote.”
Romney’s ire was directed not at those legislators who would have voted against allowing the amendment to be on the ballot, but at the 109 lawmakers who refused to allow the vote on the ballot to be held
Marriage is a fundamental and universal social institution. It encompasses many obligations and benefits affecting husband and wife, father and mother, son and daughter. It is the foundation of a harmonious family life. It is the basic building block of society: the development, productivity and happiness of new generations are bound to the family unit. That benefits are given to married couples and not to singles or gay couples has nothing to do with discrimination; it has everything to do with building a stable new generation and nation.
“Given the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, America faces questions regarding the institution of marriage. Should we abandon marriage as we know it?...I join with those who support a federal constitutional amendment. Massachusetts has a law that attempts to restrain this infringement by restricting marriages of out-of-state couples to those where no impediment to marry exists in their home state. Even with this law, valid same-sex marriages will migrate to other states. For each state to preserve its own power in relation to marriage, a federal amendment to define marriage is necessary.“
In fact thousands of those risk-takers end up needing health care, and of the expensive sort. The state and the care providers eat the costs, which means the taxpayer and premium payers eventually get the bills. To this group, Romney gives no choice. In January, 2008, they must either insure themselves or be subject to a fine. The poor get subsidies as well as assistance in signing up.
The legislature tacked on a provision that penalizes companies of 11 or more employees that do not provide health insurance. Romney vetoed this add-on. The legislature overrode his veto. But the lawmakers still handed Romney an enormous victory. They did so because the plan manifestly makes sense.
When tragedy struck, suddenly the Massachusetts legislature realized that the Big Dig was no longer merely a source of contracts that reeked of cronyism and corruption, but a potential public safety nightmare and political sinkhole. “It’s hard to view the catastrophe as an accident,” Romney declared. He immediately sought and received authority to conduct a safety audit of the tunnel and $20 million to conduct it.
Romney’s response to a tragedy and public safety crisis illustrates how he can be expected to act as president when the inevitable crisis arises: to demand authority and to act, but only with the advice of the best experts available.
“If you have a strong enough military, no one will test you, and I think one of the reasons we face the challenges we do and we’re being tested on so many fronts is that people see we haven’t done a great job in the post-major conflict period in Iraq,“ he continued. ”We’ve been tested and have been found a little wanting. I think we need to be stronger. I don’t shrink at all from the need to protect this country and our sovereignty and our pre-eminence in the world.“
Article VI, Clause 3“I think it is clear that the way the field of candidates for president is shaping up, Romney is going to be the candidate whose values most closely approximate those of evangelical Christians,” said one pundit. He goes on to say that he sees bigotry in the anti-Mormon assault on Romney.
.no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification in any Office or public Trust under the United States.
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The above quotations are from A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney, by Hugh Hewitt . Click here for main summary page. Click here for a profile of Mitt Romney. Click here for Mitt Romney on all issues.
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