Mitt, His Father's Son - George Romney

Vetting

George W. Romney

to evaluate

Willard Mitt Romney

Father & Son - Seattle World Fair 1964Fortunately I can remember the early sixties quite well since I was a teenager, actively participating in the Republican Party and attending various rallies and events. As a member of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) group, I supported Barry Goldwater's Presidential run in his 1964 loss.  Next, I was supporting Richard Nixon's 1968 election bid. Historically, it turned out to be a checkered Presidential tenure with the Watergate Scandal and resigning the presidency.

Mitt Romney 2012 CampaignI clearly recall when I first saw George Romney on television and heard his political views in 1967.  I listened carefully to his speeches and was not impressed with George Romney's very moderate, middle-of-the-road, politically-correct posture with lackluster ideas delivered in a campaign monotone. George Romney plainly was not a conservative! ...Is Mitt?

Read below about George Romney's business and political careers.  Do you see any patterns here?

Governor George Wilcken Romney Biography

"George W. Romney joined Nash-Kelvinator in 1948, and became chairman and CEO of its successor, Gov. George RomneyAmerican Motors Corporation in 1954. There he turned around the struggling firm by focusing all efforts on the smaller Rambler car."

George Romney with 1959 Rambler Sedan"George W. Romney entered politics by participating in a state convention to rewrite in 1961–1962 the State of Michigan Constitution. He was elected Governor of Michigan in 1962 and was re-elected by increasingly large margins in 1964 and 1966. Romney worked to overhaul the state's financial and revenue structure, culminating in Michigan's first state income tax, and greatly expanded the size of state government. He represented moderate Republicans against conservative Republican Barry Goldwater during the 1964 U.S. presidential election. Romney was a strong supporter of the American Civil Rights Movement while governor.  He requested the intervention of federal troops during the 1967 Detroit riot."

"Romney's wide margin of re-election as Michigan Governor in November 1966 thrust him to the forefront of national Republicans. In addition to his political record, the tall, square-jawed, handsome, graying Romney matched what the public thought a president should look like. Romney was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1968.  The techniques that had brought Romney victories in Michigan, such as operating outside established partisan formulas and keeping a distance from Republican Party organizational elements, proved ineffective in a party nominating contest."

President Nixon & Governor Romney"The qualities that helped Romney as an industry executive also worked against him as a presidential candidate; he had difficulty being articulate, often speaking at length and too forthrightly on a topic and then later correcting himself while maintaining he was not, flip-flopper here? Life Magazine said, "The real George Romney let loose to ramble, inevitably away from the point and toward some distant moral precept." The Baltimore Sun reporter, Jack Germond, joked that he was going to add a single key on his typewriter that would print, "Romney later explained...." The perception grew that Romney was gaffe-prone and an oaf; his campaign also was beset by internal rivalries. While initially a front-runner, he proved an ineffective campaigner, and soon fell behind Nixon who already was overtaking Romney in Gallup's Republican preference poll."

"Romney's greatest weakness was a lack of foreign policy expertise. Following a mid-1967 remark that his earlier support for the Vietnam War had been due to a "brainwashing" by U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Vietnam during a 1965 Governors' Tour. Democrat Senator Eugene McCarthy, running for the Democratic nomination, said that in Romney's case, "a light rinse would have been sufficient." Romney's campaign faltered even more, and he finally withdrew from the contest in early 1968." 

Richard Nixon went on to win the 1968 Presidential election against Vice President Hubert Humphries, under President Lyndon Johnson, in a very tight race, only 500,000 votes separated the opponents. Nixon won that election by only one percent of the popular vote.

Mitt: Is This Like Father, Like Son?