By Debra J. Saunders
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Do Americans want to make Barack Obama a one-term
president so that they can replace him with a one-term governor? My biggest
beef with Mitt Romney is that he won his way into the statehouse in Boston in
2002 only to use it as a perch to run for the White House in 2008. He didn't
run for re-election.
Granted, Romney never was a natural fit for liberal
Massachusetts, a state with a rich history of big-talking, belly-up-to-the-bar
political icons. In their book, "The Real Romney," Boston Globe
reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman quote a Democratic lawmaker who
complained that the Bay State governor didn't even know lawmakers' names.
Sometimes Romney got what he wanted. For example, he
balanced the state budget without broad-based tax increases. Other times,
Romney moved to the left, even working with former rival Ted Kennedy to pass
Romneycare. Sometimes he vetoed Democratic legislation, and often the Democrats
overrode his veto.
When Romney tried to elect more Republicans, he failed.
The already outnumbered GOP lost another three seats. It might well be that
Massachusetts is too liberal for Romney; polls show that Massachusetts voters
overwhelmingly support not their former governor but the incumbent president.
Joshua Archambault, the Pioneer Institute's director of
health care policy, worked as a legislative aide under Romney. "It's no
secret that there was a transition from the governor from spending time in the
business world to the political world," Archambault told me. "It took
at least a year to a year and a half to work out the kinks."
Over time, Archambault believes, Romney established good
relations with the Senate president and House speaker. Robert Travaglini, the
erstwhile Democratic Senate president, told Kranish and Helman, "(Romney)
brought out the best of us here in the Senate."
So maybe Romney did learn a few things about governing in
his one term.
What has Obama learned? Though his toxic relations with
Republicans are legendary, Obama's relations with Democrats aren't very cozy,
either. In his new book, "The Price of Politics," Bob Woodward
reported on an aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who was furious at
Obama's fumbling of debt ceiling negotiations, which forced congressional
leaders to cut their own deal. "It is really disheartening that you, that
this White House, did not have a plan B," the aide told Obama.
The question I keep wondering is: If Obama cannot cut a
budget "grand bargain" ostensibly because he cannot negotiate with
Republicans, why should voters re-elect him?
In an interview with Time magazine in August, Obama
answered that question. If he should be "fortunate enough to have another
four years," Obama said, "the American people will have made a
decision. And hopefully, that will impact how Republicans think about these
problems."
In other words, Obama doesn't think he has to learn from
his mistakes. Nor does he want to. Re-elect him and he will be as feckless
against GOP opposition in his second term as he has been for the past two
years.
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