Friction and Fiction

So Michigan is Romney territory. This shouldn’t surprise us too much — after all, he is a Michigander. His father was the governor of the state. (Let’s not forget, Romney also resides in Utah and Massachusetts.) And tonight Romney’s message of conservative fiscal responsibility found many desperate ears in a state whose economy has been declining for several years now in the face of a deteriorating manufacturing sector in this country. For most of tonight, Romney was fairly red on the red-blue spectrum. But our friendly neighborhood chameleon has turned so many shades of purple, that he can no longer keep track of all the promises he’s made to the many different branches of the Republican Party.

Make no mistake about it, Romney has been extremely blue in the past. He was the governor of the Northeast lair of the liberal Ted Kennedy. He represented the right end of Massachusetts governing, but he did defeat Democrat Shannon O’Brien by five points in the gubernatorial race. This blue streak, pardon the pun, shows up quite a bit in Romney’s calls for change now. Whenever he claims that “Washington is broken,” the other candidates seem to shift uneasily and look around at each other, as if getting ready to draw straws to see who should tell Mitt he showed up for the wrong party’s debate.

If we were to combine Romney’s Michigan victory address with Barack Obama’s New Hampshire speech, we have the theme song from Bob the Builder. “Can we fix it?” “Yes we can!” The “it” in this case, however, is apparently Washington, so this might prove a bit loftier a task than the optimistic preschool construction worker would accept. Romney, however, says he’s up to it. He compared himself to Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, but really, to find a historical example comparable to Romney’s plans to ”turn Washington inside out,” we would have to go back to the likes of FDR. Washington is not like a dirty sock that can just be turned inside out on a whim. In fact, there is so much dirty laundry in Washington that it would take decades to turn it all inside out. Mitt better have one heck of a laundry service.

But Romney’s victory speech in Michigan about his upcoming Washington overhaul made him a bit bluer than his Republican constituents would like. He was talking about all the change he wants to enact, but the Democrats and Independents bought solidly into the McCain ticket. Romney’s support came from the far right. According to the exit polls, 14% of those voting in the Republican Primary were “enthusiastic” about the Bush Administration. Of these, 47% voted for Romney, almost twice as many Bush enthusiasts as voted for the socially conservative, evangelical Mike Huckabee, who won only 24% of the “enthusiastic” crowd. Almost half of the 39% who described themselves as “satisfied” with the Bush Administration supported Romney over all the other candidates. Those who were angry or dissatisfied with the current administration tended to vote for McCain over Romney. So whom was Romney addressing in his victory speech where he said he would stick it to the man? Certainly not the majority of the people who voted for him.

Romney’s speech also came at a wonderfully convenient time for him: the same time as McCain’s speech. This was a low blow. I was quite excited and genuinely curious to hear how John McCain would attempt to spin his second place finish in Michigan into a way to keep from losing his momentum in South Carolina. Just as McCain began his second sentence, the news channels switched over to Romney’s victory speech. My hopes for hearing a seasoned political veteran were dashed when Romney supporters chanted “No they haven’t!” to various questions their candidate asked them about whether those in Washington have come through in delivering on their promises. What a disappointment. When Obama gets people to chant, at least they do so in unison. He keeps it simple and doesn’t use awkward diphthongs and contractions. Romney’s sounded more like a disorganized high school pep rally than a serious political address.

Now South Carolina is just around the corner, and it seems as though Romney will take a bit of McCain’s momentum from him. This bodes well for Huckabee, who could use a bit of a boost to try pull away from McCain in the Palmetto State. If Huckabee pulls off a win in South Carolina, then we will all still be confused as to who the front runner is. But if McCain can win South Carolina, he will strongly surge into Florida, and he might be able to establish himself just in time for Super Tuesday.

Romney will have to be as red as he can be to compete with the other candidates in the South, but he can’t forsake his blueness either, it’s too valuable to him in winning over moderates. So now Romney has to decide just how purple he will be for the remainder of his campaign. I suggest he pick a shade and stick with it, even against a slightly more red or blue background. If he is actually serious about winning, he’ll have to sacrifice some of his malleability and start sticking to a set of principles.