Unlike David Frum, I was very disappointed in Mitt Romney’s victory speech in New Hampshire last night (transcript here). If Romney was awakened from a cryogenic freeze, and was asked to give a speech without being told anything about the national circumstances or about the president other than that he was a Democrat, this is the sort of speech he’d deliver.
Our campaign is about more than replacing a President; it is about saving the soul of America. This election is a choice between two very different destinies.
President Obama wants to “fundamentally transform” America. We want to restore America to the founding principles that made this country great.
He wants to turn America into a European-style entitlement society. We want to ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity.
This President takes his inspiration from the capitals of Europe; we look to the cities and small towns of America. [..]
I want you to remember when our White House reflected the best of who we are, not the worst of what Europe has become.
That America is still out there. We still believe in that America.
And cue the weak-on-defense music:
Internationally, President Obama has adopted an appeasement strategy. He believes America’s role as leader in the world is a thing of the past. I believe a strong America must – and will – lead the future.
He doesn’t see the need for overwhelming American military superiority. I will insist on a military so powerful no one would think of challenging it.
He chastises friends like Israel; I’ll stand with our friends.
He apologizes for America; I will never apologize for the greatest nation in the history of the Earth.
Doesn’t this just seem so tedious and anachronistic? Europe, appeasement, defense, Europe, thank you goodnight. They’re just rote themes that could be trotted out against any Democrat at any time in history. Much like Republican economic prescriptions remain exactly the same for all time, regardless of the circumstance. Boom time? Regressive tax cuts! Historic recession? Regressive tax cuts!
I found Romney’s unusually large focus on Euro-bashing—following a primary victory which makes him the presumptive nominee—to be in bad taste, and poor politics. The only explanation is that he was aiming his message at South Carolina primary voters, after which he’ll switch to general election mode for good. But that speech sure seemed general election-like, with its broad themes, vacuous platitudes about American awesomeness, and attempts at stark contrasts with the president, without even hinting that any of his primary opponents exist. We have to wonder, is this Romney’s general election message? Can this be all he’s got?
His foreign policy critique is a rehash of fabricated talk radio tropes—Obama apologizes for America, appeases our enemies—that just doesn’t square with the president’s record, or the high marks he gets from the public in this area. He’s of course banking on his economic critique of the president, which may or may not be compelling depending on how things go over the next ten months. But if the recovery continues apace, and more importantly, it is perceived as improving come November, Romney will be left with nothing but a very contrived and unconvincing cultural critique. Maybe we’ll hear about arugula again.
The president’s favorability rating has been hovering over 50% for most of his term. (George W. Bush left office in the low 30s.) In the worst economy of our lives, and amid the most rancorous partisan political environment anyone can remember, people still like this president. (It’s Congress they absolutely loathe.) They also know him. Trying to redefine him as an effete Europhile who wants to transform the country into a socialist dystopia will not work. Plus, Mitt Romney is not exactly the ideal messenger for this sort of cultural attack. He and the president come from the same educational milieu and probably share the same broadly cosmopolitan cultural values (which I believe they both obscure in interesting ways). George W. Bush could bury his patrician past with his drawl and his down-home mannerisms. But Mitt doesn’t seem to realize that he will be the John Kerry in this race.
Romney needs to claw away 97 electoral votes from Obama’s 2008 total. If he tries to get there using the tepid, tired playbook of Euro-bashing and American jingoism, well he better hope the employment market improves by 2013, and that Bain is hiring.
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