{"id":14256,"date":"2008-01-16T12:50:57","date_gmt":"2008-01-16T17:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14256.html"},"modified":"2008-01-16T12:50:57","modified_gmt":"2008-01-16T17:50:57","slug":"did-authenticity-lose-when-romney-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/did-authenticity-lose-when-romney-won\/","title":{"rendered":"Did ‘authenticity’ lose when Romney won?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AP’s Ron Fournier, one of the more influential voices in the political media establishment, has a surprisingly pointed piece<\/a> today, taking on Mitt Romney on the issue of “authenticity.”<\/p>\n

Mitt Romney’s victory in Michigan was a defeat for authenticity in politics.<\/p>\n

The former Massachusetts governor pandered to voters, distorted his opponents’ record and continued to show why he’s the most malleable — and least credible — major presidential candidate. And it worked. […]<\/p>\n

This still looks to be an authenticity election. First, voters are tired of being spun by politicians who aren’t getting their jobs done…. Second, the Internet and other technological advances make it nearly impossible to hide a miscue or a shift of position. Can a candidate like Romney win in the YouTube era? Sure. He just did.<\/p>\n

But to go all the way, Romney must overcome the original sin of his campaign — his choice to do whatever it takes to be president. The smart money says he can’t.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, the specific issue that got Fourier’s goat was the rhetoric about the economy in the run up to yesterday’s Republican primary in Michigan. John McCain told voters that any candidate who tells voters that traditional auto manufacturing jobs “are coming back is either naive or is not talking straight with the people of Michigan and America.” Romney said McCain was taking a defeatist attitude, and called the senator’s approach “baloney.” As far as Fournier is concerned, Romney was “pandering … taking the tactic to new heights.”<\/p>\n

Well, sure. What I’m less clear on is what Fournier means by “authenticity election.”
\n
\nFournier doesn’t exactly define the word as he sees it, but in this context, “authenticity” appears to hinge on consistency. If a candidate sticks to his or her beliefs, he or she is authentic. If candidates shift to become what they think voters want, they’re not. To succeed, Fourier argues, a candidate has to be authentic enough to connect with voters, who can spot a phony.<\/p>\n

Rather than running on his record as a can-do pragmatist in an era of government incompetence, Romney listened to advisers who said there was a tactical advantage in turning himself into the field’s social conservative.<\/p>\n

Their reasoning: Evangelicals and Republicans who put social issues atop their list had found McCain and Rudy Giuliani, the two early front-runners, unpalatable, so there was room to run on the right.<\/p>\n

Now he’s won Wyoming and Michigan and leads in the delegate count. Does pandering pay?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A few points. First, Romney is manufactured one of the more dramatic ideological metamorphoses in recent memory. But if he planned to compete as a Republican presidential candidate, he didn’t have a choice — a Mormon Massachusetts moderate who supported abortion rights, gay rights, gun control, and stem-cell research simply wasn’t credible. (Don’t believe me? Take a look at how Giuliani is doing so far.) Of course<\/i> Romney’s pandering. The point is, he doesn’t have a choice if he wants to be the GOP nominee.<\/p>\n

Second, I can appreciate Fournier’s disappointment about a phony, insincere charlatan persevering, but I wonder: does Fournier realize that this label applies to most of the leading Republican candidates?<\/p>\n

Rudy Giuliani was to the left of his party (and some Democrats) on practically every culture-war issue in the country. Now he’s transformed himself into a conservative. Authentic? Strike one.<\/p>\n

John McCain was a Republican maverick, who considered joining the Democratic Senate caucus in 2001. Now, he’s flip-flopped on practically everything<\/a> he claimed to believe in. Authentic? Strike two.<\/p>\n

As soon as he became a serious challenger for the GOP nomination, Mike Huckabee started flip-flopping all over the place<\/a>, on everything from trade to immigration to healthcare. Authentic? Strike three.<\/p>\n

The point is, Fournier is perfectly right to call Romney out for his shamelessness. But about the only guy in the Republican field who’s been consistently right-wing throughout his career is Fred Thompson, who apparently doesn’t feel like running for president right now.<\/p>\n

Fournier asks, “Does pandering pay?” Unless Thompson or Ron Paul gets the GOP nod, I’m pretty comfortable answering, “Obviously, yes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The AP’s Ron Fournier, one of the more influential voices in the political media establishment, has a surprisingly pointed piece today, taking on Mitt Romney on the issue of “authenticity.” Mitt Romney’s victory in Michigan was a defeat for authenticity in politics. The former Massachusetts governor pandered to voters, distorted his opponents’ record and continued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}