Mitt Romney: Good Riddance

As you know, Massachusetts has a new governor in Deval Patrick. Some people cannot wait until George W. Bush leaves office. That is the way I felt the last few weeks about now former Governor Mitt Romney. He is finally gone, and we are all the better for it.

Has a previous boyfriend, girlfriend or co-worker ever used you to get what they wanted and then dumped you? That is what Mitt Romney did to Massachusetts. He used the state governorship to simply add some experience to his resume so he can run for president, a job he will never win once more voters learn about his broken promises, shameless pandering to whatever constituency he had to suck up to, and ideological flip-flops that John Kerry would marvel at.

One of the rough things about politics is that you are always on the record and your words can come back to haunt you. One of the great things for voters is that new technology from places like YouTube can make this flip-flopping accessible to anyone. Romney first launched an unsuccessful Senate campaign against Ted Kennedy in 1994, and then won the gubernatorial race in 2002 on the same platform Massachusetts Republicans have used for decades – socially libertarian views that conform to the independent streak common in New England politics. Here he is espousing support for gay rights and abortion rights in 1994.

When Romney decided to run for President around 2004, he read the tea leaves and figured he would stand the best chance as the socially conservative candidate. Since then he has flipped on the issues and even come against other campaign issues he endorsed in 2002 like stem cell research. Romney knew he was committing political suicide in Massachusetts with his new views, but didn’t care because he had already abandoned the state to take on his quixotic presidential bid.

The whole thing left voters like me insulted and disgusted. Once again, it gave a bad impression of politicians saying anything to get elected. It’s one thing to disagree with someone’s views, but it’s worse if you don’t know when the person in charge of Massachusetts is lying or not. The whole situation gave the Massachusetts Republican party so much negative baggage that it doomed Kerry Healey’s own gubernatorial bid.

Romney continued his selfishness by leaving Massachusetts for over 200 days in 2006, mostly on campaigning and fundraising clips. At many of these, he made Massachusetts the butt of his lame jokes, saying “Being a conservative Republican in Massachusetts is like being a cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention.” Ho ho ho. For someone who didn’t even run as a conservative Republican, you sure have a nice way of treating your constituents, Mitt. And way to go helping your own state party as well. Trashing your state is not the same as trashing the state legislature.

If you are a true-blue Massachusetts Democrat, you can rejoice in Democrats finally getting the corner office after 16 years. If you are an independent like me who voted for Romney and feel used and dirty, you can look forward to this time next year when Mitt’s opponents have a Matrix-like arsenal of information they will used to destroy Romney’s credibility and squash his presidential bid before Super Tuesday. And if you are a Republican, send your hate mail to his Belmont mansion where you can correctly blame him for the one-party government we now have and the further irrelevancy of your party.