Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Can Mitt Survive Perverse Press Scrutiny?

Massachusetts Governor and presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday got a taste of what the national campaign trail will be like.

His state awash in floodwaters, he announced that the Massachusetts National Guard, that storied group that at the Concord Bridge fired the shot heard 'round the world, would be on patrol to prevent looting in flooded areas.

Critics immediately said that he was politicizing the floods, as no looting was taking place.

Too bad Mitt didn't do what the MSM expects, which is to fail to patrol, allow looting (which creates great video for the MSM), and then blame Bush for the floods created by global warming created by inadequate CAFE standards and failure to ratify Kyoto, and then blame Bush for not having made a sufficient response to the disaster.

What the MSM won't do is contrast the very competent response of a well-governed state like Massachusetts with the chaos in the People's Republic of Huey Long.

It remains to be seen whether this is just an opportunistic shot at Romney or the MSM is determined to undermine any national appeal that this polished, accomplished, conservative Mormon Republican might have by doing this all the time.

We guess the latter. But oddly enough, that might just be what Mitt needs to mount an effective primary campaign. Conservatives love the guy who gets unfairly savaged by the press and keeps smiling. Remember a certain governor of California with that ability?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was not the National Guard that fired the shot heard 'round the world at Concord Bridge. It was the not-so-well-regulated militia. There is a difference.

Would you say the minutemen were the same as today's first responders or firefighters?

The MSM's template is to savage any potential candidate who is a conservative. It's time for Mitt to realize that.

Jon A. Alfred E. Michael J. Wile E. SWNID said...

In constitutional law the National Guard is the state militia. It is commanded by the governor of the state. I believe that the name was changed to "National Guard" around the time of WWII, maybe at the same time that the Defence Department was organized. Someone with a better grasp of military history than mine can weigh in on this.

You'll recall that part of the problem at Katrina was that the President lacks the authority to command the guard and the Governor of Louisiana lacked the will to order them into action.

At any rate, the Massachusetts minutemen are the direct forebears of the Massachusetts National Guard.

You'll note that the seal of the National Guard features a minuteman as its central icon: see this page, upper left corner:

http://www.mass.gov/guard/

Guy named Courtney said...

Gasp, how can he dare to pull these people away from training for war to do such a menial task as protecting the state from illegal action.

Anonymous said...

Three cheers for Constitutional history.

Anonymous said...

Excellent post. Thanks for saying it like it is.