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The Romney Conundrum.

Mitt Romney is a good guy. A stand up family man. A guy who knows business and a guy who will likely lose the Presidential election if he is the GOP nominee.

Why won’t they like him?

Ruben Navarette Jr has his reasons for the persistent “Anyone-But-Romney” faction that resides not only within the GOP, but across the voting public as a rule. Though he does have some points, I think he missed something.

But first, let examine the reality of this upcoming election. Even though things do not look great right now for President Obama, they are slowly but surely improving. I just saw a report that medical inflation has slowed down a bit. Not, there was no indication that ObamaCare, as it’s called, had anything to do with that as most of the changes from that don’t go into effect until 2014 or so. Never-the-less, the President will be able to take credit for it.

The unemployment numbers have been trending consistently down, albeit slowly. I’m not sure if there is a definite number value to set your sites on, but if that number continues to trend down this year, Obama will have his “Stay The Course” message. Now, a 7.5 percent unemployment number is bad, but, it’s better than an 8 percent, and he’ll have that momentum on his side. If this is the case come November, Obama take this election, especially if Mitt wins the GOP nomination.

I single out Romney because, at this point and time, I don’t see anyone else getting the nod from the GOP, and oh what a reluctant nod that will be. The base of the Republican party, they don’t dislike him, but he doesn’t satisfy their needs for a meat thrower, a male version of an Ann Coulter (although maybe that isn’t the best example right now as she is on the outs with hard-core Conservatives because she’s backing Romney). But Romney isn’t the only one that Conservatives just won’t take a shining to. I know It won’t happen, but I think the one guy who would give Obama a real run for his money, even if the trends are looking up is Jon Huntsman. He’s to my mind the most sensible and experienced guy in the GOP field. Plus… well… he’s sane. I mean, really, Newt “I did not lobby for Freddie Mac” Gingrich can be a total basket case. Ron Paul, though I support him, can be a bit looney (but in a fun way)… And how crazy does Rick Santorum or Michell Bachmann have to be to even THINK they could attract a sliver of the independent vote during the general election!

Not to imply Mitt Romney’s not sane. He is very well centered in that regard. When compared to Bachmann or Cain or “business” (con artist) rival Donald Trump, he’s uber-sane! It’s just that, he’s just… so… canned. He’s the “perfect” candidate… Too perfect! He comes across as someone who was born and bred to be a candidate. In many ways, he’s the GOP’s version of Al Gore, who also came off as a pure-bred and changed positions on almost everything under the sun to try and be all things to all voters when he made the switch from local and state elections to the national one.

Romney and Al Gore are defective chameleons who, no matter how hard they try and change their colors to match the conditions of their current environment, they are never quite that convincing. This is the thing that ultimately made Al Gore such a weak candidate in 2000. He couldn’t even win his own home state of Tennessee (which would have made Florida moot, BTW). Just as Gore had magically forgotten about all those positions he has changed to get the high office he had obtained, eight years later he campaigned as if Bill Clinton had never existed, wiped from his memory. And yes, he did have plenty of reasons to distance himself from his boss. Lets not forget the fund raising scandals. Now, all candidates have something to run from, some skeleton in the closet as it were. It’s the way that you distance yourself that makes a difference. RomneyCare and ObamaCare do sound the same, in both name and substance, and I’m not sure that Romney will be able to get away from this one. But its all the other changes, from abortion to immigration, and everything in between. It just doesn’t sit well with the core of the GOP, and me neither. The conversions just look too convenient, insincere. I’m certain that any day now, Romney will come up with a single term equivalent of Al Gore’s “Lock Box”!

Now, granted, I think Gore was more successful with his base than Romney has been with the GOP, but only because the Democratic base thinks that any conversion to their side “must” be sincere for “obvious reasons”, because, you know, that is what you do when you become intellectually enlightened and have feelings for your fellow man! The GOP, on the other hand, approaches things from a “core beliefs” angle, and core beliefs just are not susceptible to change, because if they change, then how can they be core beliefs?