Sunday, July 22, 2012

How Romney could become a great president

 Peter O'Donnell

This year, America needs to elect a great president, and that will require voting against the incumbent.
Mitt Romney has failed to excite conservatives, by and large, and is suspected of being too centrist, even too liberal, to bring the necessary resolve to the office that might place America back on the right path.

However, alternatives seem few and far between as there is almost no chance of anyone else being nominated for the GOP or elected as a third party candidate. So it's basically a choice between Mitt Romney stepping up to the plate, or waiting for that great president to come along in 2016 -- and that begs the question, does America have four years to sacrifice? Perhaps, things always look worse than they turn out to be, but this may be the one time where things are as bad, if not worse, than they appear.
Here's what I believe Mitt Romney must do to become a great president. I must admit that when asked to choose four topics in posting this article, I was tempted by humour, weird stuff, and miscellaneous. I'm not saying that I think Romney can improve his game this much. But at least we should discuss what he needs to do to attract the support of conservatives.
First, he needs to select the most suitable running mate. I would like to see him select Sarah Palin or possibly Newt Gingrich. America needs to have confidence that there's a substantial person at the side of this potential president, and not just substantial, but with conservative credentials. But some of the choices mentioned widely in the press would not harm the rest of this agenda, because it's mainly in Romney's hands anyway.
Here are four conservative principles that I think Romney should pledge to uphold if elected.
(1) Take all possible steps to balance the budget and to reduce the debt and deficit. As part of that, refrain from further misadventures under the heading of "green economy" and adopt sensible, realistic climate policies (meaning, accept natural variability and move on, no more expensive solar or wind boondoggles, an emphasis on clean air rather than reduced carbon dioxide).
(2) Pledge to stay out of foreign entanglements of all kinds except those which vitally affect the security of the United States. No more U.N. sponsored adventures, no costly ambiguous foreign wars, just intervention to save vital interests of this country.
(3) Preserve the principle of conventional marriage, and uphold the spirit of the First and Second Amendments.
(4) Keep taxes low and stimulate small business while doing nothing to harm the economy.
If Romney pledges to maintain these four key conservative "core values" then he would be on the road to being the great president that these times require. He must also pledge to keep the Mormon faith question a private matter and maintain the separation of church and state.
I believe he should do all this, not to enhance his voter appeal or run up larger vote totals, but to save America from becoming a failed state. The question of border security plays into this as well, and it should be expected that there would be a reversal of trends towards increased illegal immigration. What you do with the ones already here is probably open to different solutions, but these should be in the national interest.
If Romney fails to endorse a strong conservative foundation, then I don't see how he is going to be enough of an improvement over Obama to merit any special consideration from American conservative voters, who would be quite within their rights to park their vote with a more principled candidate. It's up to Romney, does he want to do the minimum (and probably lose like McCain did) or does he want to do the maximum (and probably win like Reagan did against Carter?).
To me, the choice is a no-brainer -- conservative principles can save America from the inevitable crisis that would follow any further liberal misadventures.

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