The Collapsing Candidacy

Is Romney the worst candidate for president in the television age? Nixon, of course, was the first to suffer under the camera's gaze, but rarely has a candidate had less self-control, alienated such large numbers of people with such regularity (here and abroad), changed his mind from one day or hour to the next and run a campaign with a less detailed platform. None come immediately to mind -- though one must consider how Gore allowed the election to be stolen after having one of the easiest roads to the presidency in the past 30 years. Romney seems to exemplify all the worst qualities in politicians -- the very embodiment of the corrupt politician we see so often in Hollywood and on television. He stands for little except making the country worse off, continuing the perilous path we have been following for most of the past 30 years.

Another interesting question is why he's running at all. Does he simply want to serve the needs of his fellow 1 percenters? Is he trying to prove that you can win without any substance in the age of spectacle? Or does he simply want to be remembered for something besides firing a lot of workers and being a centrist governor in Massachusetts? It is hard to know, but it certainly should give pause to voters. 

Among the recent arguments he has made is that Obama is guilty of redistributionism. Yet it is his party that has overseen the largest redistribution of income in history ... from the poor and middle class to the rich. Is this something people are willing to vote for again? Can we even trust the one percent to look out for our collective interests? The idea of great statesman and businessman leaving the private sector to do their government service and then return to private life was a central idea of the founding fathers. But does Romney fit this model? Did Bush? Or Reagan? McCain was a lifetime politician and thus can't be placed in this mold ... and neither can Clinton. But the idea that success in private life necessarily translates to the ability to succeed in the political arena is one that has been suspect for some time. Let us hope that Romney is not given the opportunity to provide further empirical evidence toward this claim.