Politically Connect: Is Romney right for the Right?

The dark-red dust has settled, but is Romney right for the Right?

Four years ago, LeBron James was still jammin’ in Cleveland, Tiger Woods was still winning major championships, and Mitt Romney looked like he had a promising political future.

Well, the future is now, and things are a bit different.

Tiger’s been tamed. LeBron’s rocking rims in Miami. And Romney has realized his political potential.

Romney — the bridesmaid of the 2008 GOP primaries — must’ve caught John McCain’s bouquet, because the runner-up turned frontrunner will be walking down the general-election aisle this November.

The question is whether or not the former Massachusetts governor will be able to marry his alleged liberal-like record and contemporary etch-a-sketched ideals to win the hearts (and votes) of the American public.

In 2008, the U.S. economy was crumbling. Americans needed someone to take office and fix the nation’s financial woes. However, many Americans wanted someone to bring hope back into the Oval Office and get the bad-Bush taste out of their mouths. As is often the case in the United States, the people made their pick based on want rather than need. Barack Obama beat John McCain by a legitimate landslide, and, since then, the economy has continued to slip.  

No Republican was ever going to win the ’08 election. I mean, the GOP could’ve put out a (zombified) Reagan with (pre-Watergate) Nixon ticket, and the Democratic candidate still would’ve won. Eight years of war-filled Bush-era America worked up the people into a hope-hungry feeding-frenzy.  On election night, Obama served up a casserole of change, and millions across the country ate it up.

However, the people have had to pick up the ever-increasing check, and President Obama’s menu has made many Americans sick. Now, they’re looking for a new national Master-In-Chef.

If Obama was like an every-man diner in small-town America, Romney represents an uber-expensive dinner-club right down the road from Wall Street.Four years ago, that look wouldn’t have worked.

In 2012’s economy-concerned political culture, however, it just might jive perfectly with the needs — and, more importantly, the wants — of Americans.

Romney’s rise to nation-wide political prominence was fueled by his economic prowess.  However, I don’t think he bought his way to the top. Instead, I think his current position in U.S. politics has, in part, resulted from the fact that he could’ve bought his way to the top — that the man has made many millions of dollars and knows how to succeed in the realm of business and finance.

My point is that voters are ready to make their presidential selection based more on the resume and less on the interview or image — that people want someone who can produce results rather than pitch ideas, make changes not excuses, and create jobs instead of controversy.  

He might not be your first pick to have a beer with at the local pub, but you’d definitely let him look at your investment portfolio or business plan over a cup of coffee at Starbucks (and I’d bet you $10,000 that Mitt would pick up the check).