Overseas Narrative

This past week Mitt Romney has had an extremely successful overseas tour, building positive relationships in Great Britain, Israel, and Poland. I’ve watched the interviews, heard or read transcripts of speeches, seen photos. So it is an experience in cognitive dissonance to hear the news narrative that claims he’s an embarrassment, with one gaffe after another. That’s wishful thinking on the part of a biased media who want a negative outcome from this trip. But they have had to make it up.

In last Friday’s post I mentioned the supposed gaffe, where Romney was said to have criticized the London Olympics. In a very positive 9-minute interview, he acknowledges, in answer to a direct question from Brian Williams, that he is aware of concerns the Olympic planners are challenged with. He includes three main parts, two of which are very positive, and then the third, which is always an unknown until the games are underway. He was pulling for things to go well. The only thing he didn’t do was guarantee that all would be well, as though he were unaware of the specific challenges; that would have also been perceived negatively, as though he hadn’t been paying attention, when the Olympics are a huge and positive part of his record. All the rest of his public communications, and also his meeting with the Prime Minister, went well, and clearly he made a good impression there on everyone but the American press.

Here is the interview Piers Morgan had with Mitt and Ann Romney, definitely worth seeing.

Romney Pays Respects at the Western Wall of Temple Mount in
Jerusalem on Sacred Day of Mourning.
Photo from Mitt Romney Central on Facebook

The next part of the trip was to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is a long-time personal friend. He was respectful to the man (who had been snubbed by our sitting president during his visit to our country) and complimented the people and their culture. This was considered a “gaffe,” because he pointed out that the strong work ethic and the millennia-old Israeli culture has led to prosperity for the people. The comparison was made between per capita income of Jews versus Palestinians. It’s demonstrable with data; the only error was in overestimating Palestinian per capita income by several thousand dollars. No matter what the press claim, this was a positive development between US relations and our greatest ally in the Middle East.

Lech Walesa and Mitt Romney
photo from Mitt Romney Central on Facebook

Then there’s Poland, where Romney complimented the people, who have regained freedom from tyranny, and have continued economic progress where countries around them have lately fallen into recession. Lech Walesa endorsed Romney as his choice for president—not that he has a vote, but he clearly has a preference of who he’d rather deal with. The press complaint of Romney’s Poland visit says that an aid had a meltdown. Here’s what happened: they were having a sacred moment at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Rather than respecting the people and the moment, US press people called out rude, taunting “questions,” and were called on it at least twice before the aid used an expletive in pointing out their inappropriateness. That’s what the press thinks Romney should be embarrassed about?

Concerning the cluelessness of the media, radio host Hugh Hewitt says in his July 31^st blog:

Press reaction to Romney's trip will make a great study in the years ahead on just how clueless and inept political reporters have become as a result on their dependency on each other and cable commentary to shape their world view. They don't talk to voters and they don't live among voters. Thus they invent stories that didn't happen and wouldn't matter if they did—a failed trip—even as they miss major events—Romney's speech in Israel—or major trends—the backlash against the enforcers threatening Chick-fil-A.

Meanwhile, back at campaign headquarters, here’s a chart showing money Obama et al. have poured into negative ads (because they can’t very well make ads about his record):

 

And this week Romney came out with this beautifully positive ad, called “Believe in Our Future”:

Let the Games Begin

I’m looking forward to seeing the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games tonight, followed by more watching of sports than I usually do except during summer and winter Olympics. I’m hoping there will be inspiring stories worth telling here, because it’s a worthwhile thing that the world gets together in peace and celebrates together in friendly competition.

But this post today relates to the Olympics only peripherally. I was reading Sean Trende’s piece the other day on Real Clear Politics, and he observed (with plenty of data, which he always provides) that the race is always about the incumbent. If the incumbent’s time in office is unacceptable, then it’s about whether the challenger is acceptable.

Mitt Romney heading 2002 Winter Olympics
AP photo/Joe Cavaretta

People have already decided about Obama—and it’s negative among anyone who might change their vote from last time. So the question at this point is not about Obama; it’s about Romney. And people are only just beginning to tune in to pay attention. Surprising to those of us who have paid attention all along, and particularly to those of us who have been learning about Romney since the early 90s, people don’t know him yet.

Ads against Obama (other than those recent ones that took advantage of his moment of candor about government’s omniscience, which is something that needs to be told) are mostly a waste of air time and money. What is needed is a blitz of who Romney is.

Today is my little contribution to that effort. Starting with what we know of him from the Olympics.

Let’s start with setting the stage. Back in the late 1990s, just three years out from the Olympics (so, five years into planning) there was scandal involving the bidding process, and budget deficits and building delays. It looked possible that the games could actually fail to materialize.

Mitt Romney was invited in to head the games for some specific reasons: he was known for saving businesses in crisis, he was known for strong leadership under pressure, and he was particularly know for integrity, which was essential in this particular crisis. In barely more than a week after the request came, he had turned over the running of his highly successful investment capital firm to trusted staff and worked full-time on the Olympics. He took no pay for his service over those next several years. In fact, he donated about a million of his own money, which he felt he need to do while he was calling friends in the business world and asking them for donations and sponsorships.

His beloved wife, Ann, suffered from multiple sclerosis, diagnosed in 1998. Her story is that she felt Mitt focused totally on her as the center of his life. Many people report he is able to make people feel that way, but I think it is most natural with Ann. He clearly adores her.

So, personal challenges and overwhelming Olympic crisis were his life in those days. But the Olympics turned around so well under his guidance that people forget how tenuous that had been. By half a year out, it looked like it would be practically a cake walk. And then 9/11 happened. The meaning of the tragedy for the country was so memorable that the date is one of the few that immediately brings to mind the historic tragedy. For the Olympics, it meant there were just five months left to guarantee that hundreds of thousands of people could come to a US city with safety from attack. You can be certain that this was the real test of Romney’s ability to meet a crisis.

His attention to detail, his ability to inspire by concentrating on the underlying principles (it’s about the athletes, in this case, and the security of the environment was what they deserved), and his extremely capable (and frugal) management of money resulted in not just adequate Olympics that don’t go badly into debt, but highly successful Olympics, as an event as well as a financial boon. It’s not out of line to say that what he did was miraculous—and there aren’t many people in the world today who could have filled his shoes.

There’s a two-part article covering his efforts at the 2002 Winter Olympics in The Deseret News. Part I covers more general leadership over those years. Part II covers more specifically what Romney did in response to the threat caused by the 9/11 attack. Another good source is Romney's own account, Turnaround.

If we only looked at what he did during these Olympic years, Romney would be outstanding as a presidential candidate. But in addition to that we also have his business record, creating profit and jobs in the free market, as well as his crisis management in Massachusetts as governor (again, taking no income for performing that job).

When people say he is hard to know, I think it is because they aren’t used to people like him. To me he seems very similar to many men of integrity I have known; he is just smarter and more successful than most. But, as we say, unto whom much is given, much is required. I believe that his “ambition” to become president isn’t about power; I believe it is about a love for this country and a belief that he has the unique skills and experiences that can help us right now.

That’s really enough for today. But, since it’s in the news, I’ll say just a bit about the “gaffe” this week in London. Here is a transcript of the exchange in a 9-minute interview between NBC’s Brian Williams and Mitt Romney:

BW: And in the short time you’ve been in London, do they [the Olympics] look ready, to your experienced eye?

MR: You know, it’s hard to know just how well it will turn out. There were a few things that were disconcerting. There’ve been stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials. That obviously is something which isn’t encouraging. Because in the games—there are three parts that make games successful. Number 1, of course, are the athletes. That’s what overwhelmingly the games are about. Number 2 are the volunteers, and they’ll have great volunteers here. But number 3 are the people of the country. Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment. But that’s something which we only find out once the games actually begin.

Again, this was from a 9-minute interview. I heard the whole thing and totally missed this part as something troublesome. The memorable moment was when Williams questioned him about the rumor that he was seeking a VP candidate who was a “boring white guy,” and Romney quipped that he’d already checked and learned that Williams was not available. Made me laugh. Not offensive, but quick and dry humor (which Williams seemed to miss).

The “gaffe” seemed to me a reasonable response to a direct question. Romney was validating the suggestion by Williams that there were problems; he was aware of them, as Williams and presumably the viewers were as well. And then he went on to emphasize the importance of the athletes and the volunteers, and his hope that the people of London were engaged and enjoying the games without guaranteeing that for them as an outsider. That is why it was so easily repaired in conversation later with the prime minister.

So, it would have been better if he had foreseen the media’s all-out effort to scan every single word for something to put forth as a gaffe. But it really wasn’t intended as a criticism of London and their Olympics.

I hope both the Olympics and the rest of Romney’s overseas trip go smoothly.