How Mitt Romney can win conservatives
- By Mitchell Blatt
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 21, 2015
Romney criticized the Obama administration for its ambiguous rhetoric during the week following the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi. At the time, the strategy may have backfired, with Obama claiming Romney was politicizing a tragedy. Two years later, with Libya now controlled by militias and factional governments, it is clear that the Libya intervention was a failure. The Republicans have launched nearly a dozen Congressional investigations into the Benghazi attack, drawing derision from the media and from Democrats, but the Tea Party still thinks Benghazi is a scandal.
Over the ensuing two years, conservatives have crowed that Romney was right. Romney said in November 2014, "The president's policies have put us in a place of danger unlike anything we knew prior to 9/11. This is the result of a foreign policy gone severely awry." He has been quoted as saying that the chaos overseas is one of the reasons he is considering running.
During the 2012 election, Romney was trying to focus the message almost exclusively on jobs. His lack of experience on foreign policy was seen as a weakness, and his performance in the foreign policy debate was panned. Now he has a basis on which to position his foreign policy credentials.
In the 2012 primaries, there was an "anyone but Romney" resistance that caused the Tea Party to frantically court any other candidate. Herman Cain, a former pizza chain CEO who has never been elected to any office, was even riding high for a month. This time, the Tea Party will focus their guns on the new guy, Jeb Bush. It is conceivable that Romney might even benefit from an "anyone but Jeb" movement.
None of the potential candidates elicit complete support from the Tea Party. Conservatives are so nitpicky they can find any reason why a politician is an impure "Republican in name only." The Tea Party Patriots are so puritanical they attacked Rick Perry even for his choice of advisors. Last year, he hired Steve Schmidt and Haley Barbour, both of whom the Tea Party hates for their previous support of "establishment" candidates. Mike Huckabee will be criticized for allegedly having raised taxes as governor. Rand Paul exhibits an "isolationist" streak in foreign policy, and his father Ron Paul, who competed multiple times in the primaries, has connections to the 9/11 Truth movement. The "birthers" might even attack Ted Cruz for having been born in Canada, though he is an American citizen.
The bottom line is the Tea Party can't unite behind a candidate, and, if it comes down to Bush or Romney, it would be unsurprising to see them side with Romney.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm
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