The Anointing of Mitt Romney as the Republican Nominee Has Begun – Wall Street Journal Joins Washington Post

Watch for Others To Come Around as Soon as They Get Those Annoying Early Primaries Out of the Way

The anti-Mitt Romney candidates are having a shorter and shorter shelf life.  What has happened in the past is that as one by one they arose, this caused voters to actually look at what they were saying and what they have done, and as a result, reject them.  The latest non-Mitt candidate, Ron Paul, must now defend some bigoted hate-filled comments he made in newsletters seeking to raise money and gather support for his causes some 15 to 20 years ago.  His response has been to that was some other guy.

The editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal are anti-Mitt, in large part because of his imposition of a requirement for health care insurance while he was Governor of Massachusetts.  Mitt’s opposition to this principle for the nation is not enough to absolve him of the disdain of the WSJ.  Mitt also is not aggressive enough on lowering taxes for the very wealthy, at least in the eyes of the WSJ.



Mr. Romney in the WSJ
Notice the Nice Glowing Image



But as his nomination becomes inevitable folks like the WSJ will seek to rehabilitate Mitt and cast him into the mold of Presidential prowess.  It has started, with Mr. Romney having been given the Saturday puff piece interview in the Wall Street Journal.  In this interview Mr. Romney mostly ducks and covers, although he does state one, big boldface lie.

The Republican presidential candidate says he never intended to run for office again after 2008—"I went back and bought a home which was far too expensive and grandiose for the purposes of another campaign," he jokes. He was drawn back into public life amid Mr. Obama's bid to "fundamentally transform" the country, to use the president's own words, into "an entitlement society," to use Mr. Romney's

Mr. Romney conveniently omits the fact that the “another home” was in the state of New Hampshire, which just coincidentally holds the nation’s first primary.  The truth is that Mr. Romney started running for President the day after the 2008 election, and has been running hard ever since.  One wonders why he just wouldn’t admit this and move on.

On several other issues Mr. Romney says that he is ignorant.  On his proposed tax changes he says he doesn’t know their impact

When it comes to "something as extensive as the U.S. tax code," Mr. Romney continues, "I simply don't have the team . . . to be able to model out what will happen to all of the different income groups in the country, what will happen to the different sectors of our economy based on dramatic changes."

But that of course has not prevented him from presenting tax changes.  One wonders of the wisdom of advocating a change in something as important as taxes without knowing the impact but this is politics, wisdom has nothing to do with it.

On the big foreign policy issue of Mr. Romney’s campaign, Iran and their nuclear capacity Mr. Romney says this

As for Iran's nuclear program, Mr. Romney sounds a note of moral certitude reminiscent of, well, George W. Bush and the axis of evil. "I see Iran's leadership as evil. When the president stands up and says that we have shared interests with all the people in the world, I disagree. There are people who are evil. There are people who have as their intent the subjugation and repression of other people; they are evil. America is good.

But as to specifics, well he again pleads ignorance

So what would he do about it? "I do not have a top secret security clearance at this stage to be able to define precisely what kinds of actions we could take." But he adds that "the range includes something of a blockade nature, to something of a surgical strike nature, to something of a decapitate the regime nature, to eliminate the military threat of Iran altogether."

So Mr. Romney is clearly in general election campaign mode.  Criticize without giving alternatives or specifics, equivocate to try to please all sides, impute to the opponents views and positions that the opponent does not have.  Mitt has clearly learned the skills of successful politicians of both parties. 

And now the first step towards endorsement by the radical Conservative establishment has taken place.  The interview in the WSJ, with no tough questions, no challenges and no opposition to his pronouncements.  Fox News, here he comes.