I’ve seen the “The Godfather” 42 times. I love it. I take comfort in knowing that no matter how many times I watch it, Moe Greene will always need a new pair of glasses in the afterlife. The end is the same, but I’m always entertained.
The “Mitt Romney for President” movie I’ve seen twice, and I have no interest in sitting through another viewing.
It’s not unusual to see a candidate who lost a primary nomination run again in subsequent years — Romney (R) of course has done it, as did President Reagan after losing the nomination in 1968 and 1976. It is, however, more rare to see a candidate run again after losing the general election. The last general-election loser to run for president was former Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.) in 1984, after losing to President Nixon in 1972.
{mosads}”When you do the same thing and expect a different result, it’s sort of what Einstein said, that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) quipped last week about Romney.
Romney is far from insane. He’s quite the opposite. He was an incredibly successful businessman, a progressive governor, is a voice on the national stage and a wonderful family man.
The problem for Romney is not simply that he’s been defeated twice; it’s that he was defeated so soundly in 2012, an election in which the conditions could not have been more primed to pick off President Obama. Romney ended up losing every swing state in the Electoral College with the exception of North Carolina. Which begs the question: Does the result in 2012 make a run in 2016 nothing more than an exercise in futility?
The two most important traits of any leader are authenticity and the ability to earn trust; and you can’t earn trust without authenticity. When it comes to being authentic, voters are willing to tolerate a certain level of social inauthenticity from candidates — it is politics after all. What voters will not compromise is their expectation of emotional authenticity — who you really are as a person — and intellectual authenticity — what you really believe. It’s hard to gain traction as a candidate if you lack in either of these, because politics is an already compromising enterprise.
Romney’s issues are not about Romney, the person. They are about Romney, the candidate. The most human Romney looked in 2012 was post-election, when he became a Netflix star in the movie “Mitt.” Romney, the movie star, was genuine, vulnerable and unpolished. He was authentic. Romney, the candidate, was a talking point; he was conflicted and overcoached.
A Romney campaign in 2016 will undoubtedly run a primary race that’s just conservative enough to appease the base — a base that couldn’t win him the election in 2012 — while remaining completely inauthentic to crucial swing voters who don’t believe him.
The rebranding of Romney every election compromises both his emotional and intellectual authenticity — from his social liberalism during his 1994 Senate run in Massachusetts, to his unwillingness to acknowledge that the healthcare coverage he passed as governor was the same thing as Obama’s national version, to his apparent 2016 vision of tackling poverty.
“Under President Obama, the rich have gotten richer, income inequality has gotten worse and there are more people in poverty than ever before,” Romney said in a campaign-style speech last week.
Romney can sell ideology; he can sell an aversion to Barack Obama — but he has never figured out how to sell himself.
The legacy candidates of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) by no means inspire optimism for change in the executive office. Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) has his own gubernatorial baggage and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), whose “outsider” brand is refreshing, may find herself too far out to win a national election. Their greatest appeal, however, is that each is the anti-Romney.
His patriotism is unquestioned. His passion is admirable. But it is time for Mitt Romney’s presidential aspirations to sleep with the fishes.
Spatola is a West Point graduate and former captain in the U.S. Army. He currently serves as a college basketball analyst for CBS Sports and SiriusXM radio.