The Beat Goes On To Super Tuesday

I was shocked at how few people have asked any presidential candidates what they want to do when they become president and how willing the candidates are not to talk about their plans. Romney is more pre-disposed to talking about this, but there is still a reluctance to talk about anything big or new or bold. Is that Bush’s fault? I don’t think so. It’s not like America could not use a few big ideas. One of them might have bee to say to John McCain, when he carped about how many manufacturing jobs left Massachusetts, to say: "Look John, this country has been great because it has reinvented industry, economy and how we live. This is by bringing about innovation."
Look at the latest Apple laptop. You can fit it in a file envelope. Does it get built in the US? No. It gets built in China. Does that matter? No. The US makes its money through innovation and ideas. It invents new services and new ways of living. More than ever, the slogan of every American when they get to customs is: "I have nothing to declare but my genius." It would have been great is Romney has rhapsodized on that instead of allowing McCain to suck him into the usual old pejorative of lost jobs. As if 1,000 auto workers were worth more than 10 Einsteins. I thought Romney was best equipped to think outside the box. Does Obama? I suspect not. I don’t think we get someone like that in 2008.
Romney could have also said: "I’ll do everything I can to make the US safe. I hope that I’ll measure up. I don’t think any of us can promise that we’ll prevent anything like 911 ever happening again or a crisis like on the Iranian border that happened just a month ago. But I will do everything I can. Like John McCain, I’ll rely on all the people gathered around that are there to protect us that do such a wonderful job. But I want to talk about something else: living life for more than just being safe. I want us to live the big American life with big dreams, taking chances, thinking differently… That’s what everyone admires about the US. That’s what Reagan celebrated." Emancipation and the Louisiana Purchase were big ideas in their day. That’s what presidents should do: provide big ideas for their people. It’s got to be about being bigger and better than before, not just holding on to what you’ve got.
The problem with John McCain isn’t his ACU record: 82% is fine. After 20 years in Washington, he doesn’t trust the private sector. His instinct is that it depends on the government. He believes that most businessmen are essentially out to make a buck and don’t make much of a positive contribution to the community except for some vile motive. His semantics and his rhetoric give that away. After this amount of time in Washington, you can’t imagine a world without government or without government being this large. While I agree with Gerson that we need to put a more humane face on conservatism, and while capitalism should be unbridled, one has to wonder why it is immoderate or extremist to believe that the government needs less than $2.8 trillion. For all of McCain’s talk of reducing government and spending and lowering taxes, he votes against tax cuts and fundamentally doesn’t trust the private sector. He talks a good game about it, but in the end he shares, with most Democrats and with a good chunk of the Republicans, the same sort of big government attitude. He uses words like greed and lost manufacturing jobs because he buys into the rhetoric of the day and also because he is a politician.
While Mitt Romney may not exactly outdo him on the rhetoric side and sometimes does things that are just as off-putting, such as to say that the government’s responsibility is to head off the recession, he does seem to have a more innate understanding of the role of business and seems to believe in it. No wonder. He made a fortune from his work in the private sector. Does that make him traditionally distrustful of government? I think his record shows otherwise. His work in Massachusetts showed a belief that government can work and can bring about innovative and imaginative approaches to solve problems. His work with the Salt Lake City Olympics is a prime example of his ability to turn things around managerially using many government agencies. But he understands that the engine of the economy is not the government and that business and profits are not a swear phrase.
It would be interesting to see if Mr. McCain voted for Sarbanes-Oxley.
Mr. McCain needs to realize that there needs to be a base of power outside the government or the government dominates us completely and begins to appropriate people’s rights without just compensation. Many of those rights are priceless.
I believe Mr. Romney understands this. This is the difference. His mentality of not one of a politician. He doesn’t seek to exploit people’s class divisions and dislikes. That Mr. McCain does this shows he would not be a very good president.
Clinton did this too, but he allowed commerce to proceed. I may therefore exaggerate this point. But McCain makes me wonder. I’d love a different message from one of the big two parties. When we only see a difference in personality, it isn’t democracy anymore.