He’s not catching on

— A year before Republicans pick a 2012 candidate, their presidential outlook remains muddled. Nothing exemplifies their dilemma more than the all-but-certain candidacy of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

By traditional standards, he should be the GOP front-runner. He was the 2008 runner-up, is personally attractive and professionally successful and can mount a well-financed, professional campaign. But he doesn’t even have clear support within the party’s mainstream wing, let alone the increasingly influential Tea Party faction.

His problems were evident from what he said-and didn’t say-when he joined other hopefuls in wooing activists at last week’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Romney was relatively well received, thanks in part to his organization’s success in mobilizing his backers. He finished second again in the presidential straw poll, showing support in a crowd that’s not his natural constituency.

But his speech was heavy on crowd-pleasing anti-Obama one-liners and weak on substance. It failed to stir the spontaneous enthusiasm that greeted such speakers as Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann and, to everyone’s surprise, the New York real estate entrepreneur turned reality-show host, Donald Trump.

Romney began with some curious commentary on Obama’s State of the Union speech, chiding the president for a failed effort to redefine himself and present “a new and improved Barack Obama.” What’s odd is that raised one of Romney’s greatest handicaps, his efforts to redefine himself over the years. A moderate pro-gayrights candidate when he challenged Senator Edward Kennedy in 1994 who said he’d protect “a woman’s right to choose” in 2002, Romney now sounds like most GOP conservatives.

He condemned liberal policies that “failed to protect the unborn” in a speech replete with conservative catch phrases like “America is an exceptional nation” and belief in the Constitution “as it was written and intended by the founders.”

He failed to mention the ongoing revolution in Egypt, lest any pro-democracy comments anger conservatives stressing stability, and touched only tangentially on the issue that is a top GOP target-and his Achilles heel-health care.

The reason, of course, is that Obama’s health care law, which Republicans abhor, resembles the law Romney passed in Massachusetts. Both require everyone to purchase health insurance.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels gave CPAC’s most substantive and challenging speech, calling efforts to eliminate earmarks “a trifle” and saying focusing on them and “ ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ trivializes what needs to be done.” But he has angered some social conservatives by down-playing their issues, and he lacks the charisma of Sarah Palin or Bachmann, not to mention Obama.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News.

Editorial, Pages 16 on 02/19/2011

Upcoming Events