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Tonight I attended a Republican fundraiser for Mitt Romney. I will not go into details on the fundraiser but will rather focus on Mr. Romney. Let me just say this: if you thought he was impressive in the debate, he is a rock star in person. He is one of the best public speakers I have ever seen. His wife is also very articulate and is First Lady material. Mr. Romney spoke about some interesting topics and while he was speaking with a specific audience (fiscally conservative but not evangelical audience) what he said will be a major part of his campaign. He used an example that when he was in Massachusetts he was asked to spend $250 million to rebuild a crumbling state courthouse. Romney was advised that many of these courthouses would have to be renovated over his term. He instead decided to build twelve new state courthouses that would be placed strategically so that each citizen would be within half an hour of a courthouse. How many courthouses existed before? 112 court houses. The reason these courthouses still remained is because most towns had courthouses prior to the invention as the car, but he questioned why when society as a whole has adapted to the car, why hasn’t government. Such spending only benefits people who work on senatorial campaigns who are then appointed as clerks or employees as these courthouses. As usual in government, until Romney came in to fix Massachusetts, the government employees got the benefits that should have been going to the people.

The point that Romney was making was that in business, you have to change to survive. If your business does not adapt within five years to major market changes, it will fail. Take the US auto industry (an example he used) they became complacent with their status as the auto super powers and neither Ford, GM, or Chrysler was prepared for the far superior and efficient business model of Toyota.
He thinks it’s ridiculous that the cabinet is structured as it is; he said he would appoint vice presidents and other positions to increase accountability and also extend presidential control over bureaucracies. For instance, dividing the military to report to specific regional commanders would reduce reaction times and improve US military operational ability. Currently the United States does this with Centcom, which controls operations directly in the Middle East and North Africa, but no other similar structure or organization exists in the military.
He called for energy independence within 25 years and thinks that it is ridiculous that the America spends a billion dollars a day to purchase oil from other countries (80% of all oil production is controlled by nationalized oil companies, not private corporations) and that we only spent a billion on energy research in 2006.

Overall he seems to want to bring a much more business like approach to government (and he has proved it in his record in Massachusetts). As he said in the debate, he thinks that Iran presents a real threat because nuclear material could get into terrorist hands (even if they’re government does not use it). He is for tougher sanctions on Iran but seems to want to take a more diplomatic approach and also to appeal to the Iranian people to seriously consider the consequences and responsibility that come with becoming a nuclear nation.
He wanted to give the troop surge a chance to work, he mentioned federalism in Iraq and I predict of the surge doesn’t work that is an option he will push for or claim that he will promote if he is elected.
He refused to say whom he would like as his running mate, but in all honesty I cannot think of anyone else who is as impressive as Romney (at least who was present at the Republican Debate last week from MSNBC.com and the Politico.com).
He is the most articulate candidate I have seen and while it was evident in person it is clear on TV too. The good news for Republicans is that there is a very strong, very Reagan-esk candidate to counter the Obama movement.

Last 5 posts by Eftychis

• Russian oil slump fuels supply worries - April 15th, 2008
• The Global Food Crisis - April 15th, 2008
• "Off-the-Record Obama" - April 14th, 2008
• Putin's inability to alter the international system - April 6th, 2008
• McCain's first general election ad - March 28th, 2008

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The Mitt Romney in person-reaction. by New School Politics, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.