How Mitt Romney Can Earn My Vote

I heard Mitt Romney speak here in Lake County last fall. Somewhere, there is a picture of him with me in it, but I don't have a copy.

Romney make a very good impression in person. As well he might; he's been running for President for four years.

In his remarks at the time, it was clear to me that he would certainly be running for President, and now he's taken the step of announcing an exploratory committee:



But Romney is not my first choice. Or even my second, or my third.

For me, Romney has some important negatives.

1. Bill Clinton once said that, "Republicans fall in line, Democrats fall in love." I think there may be some truth to this. In each presidential election year, we seem to nominate the candidate whose turn it is. In 1980, Reagan had been a very close second place for the nomination four years earlier. In 1988, Bush (41) was the sitting Vice President. In 1996, Dole was the senior Republican senator, and a former nominee for VP (in 1976). In 2000, Bush (43) was the son of the most recent Republican President. And in 2008, McCain was the guy who'd come in second for the nomination in 2000.

In 2012, the two candidates who can best argue that it's their turn are Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 VP nominee, and Gov. Mitt Romney, who finished second to McCain in the 2008 nominating race.

I don't believe that this "next-turnism" (if I may coin a phrase), serves us well. To really earn my vote, Romney will need to show in his campaign that his ideas and policies are the ones we need today, in 2012, to set America on the right course.

2. Romney, clearly, is running a campaign primarily as a fiscal conservative. But his fiscal record as a governor isn't as conservative as one might wish, and his governing record on social issues is, from a conservative standpoint, abysmal. This is the man who passed Romneycare as Governor of Massachusetts, and the man who surrendered in the fight against gay "marriage". On abortion, he claimed to have had a pro-life epiphany while in office, but did nothing to advance the pro-life cause, and was in fact an obstacle to its advance.

To earn my vote, Romney will need to credibly show what he's learned as a governor, what he should have done differently; he cannot run on his experience as a governor and also run away from it, both at the same time.

3. Too, Romney needs to define himself on social issues. Too often, especially here in Illinois, conservatives try to campaign only as fiscal conservatives and leave the social issues unmentioned. This tends to lead to having their opponents demagogue their positions, and define them on these very important matters.

Instead, to really earn my vote, I need to see Mitt Romney define himself on the social issues; more than just to say "I'm pro-life," but to explain why a person should be pro-life, and what pro-life measures a president Romney would seek to implement. This is called "leadership," and Republicans claim to be good at it.

4. Finally, to earn my vote, I need to see Mitt Romney identify the problems our nation is facing, and what his solutions are. I need more than just "President Obama's policies have failed." That's fine and true as far as it goes, but we have more problems than just those created in the past two years.

I need to hear from Mitt Romney an acknowledgment that it's a problem that 1.5 million babies are lost to abortion each year, and what he intends to do about it. I need to hear him explain to the American people how our country is harmed by the breakdown of the traditional family, and what his remedy is. I need to know that he recognizes that the presence of 20 million illegal aliens is a burden on our economy that we can ill afford, and I need to know his solution to the problem. I need to hear Mitt Romney's approach to fighting America's enemies and using our military.

In short, I need to see Mitt Romney campaign on all the issues facing our nation, and not just the ones he thinks make him look good.

And if he were to get through the entire campaign without mentioning his hair once, that wouldn't be a bad thing, either.