Mitt Romney Still Doesn't Have a Job But Hasn't Stopped Looking

Today Republican Mitt Romney announced he has formed an exploratory committee to run for President in 2012:



Mitt Romney talks a lot in his announcement about unemployment, which is something Mitt knows a lot about. He had a job as Governor of Massachusetts and seemed to be doing a good job. But then he quit in 2006 because he wanted a better job. Mitt didn't get the job, losing out to John McCain in the Republican primary round of the 2008 Presidential election. Of course, John McCain didn't get the job either, and Mitt is applying again.

What has Mitt Romney been doing in the meantime? Not too much it would seem. He hasn't held any steady employment. He did write a book that he oddly titled No Apology: Believe in America. "No Apology" appeared in big letters with "Believe in America" in little letters. Why any politician would put the words Apology and America together is beyond me.

But Romney does has something he may have to apologize for, and that is the health reform law that he signed into law during his term as Governor here in Massachusetts. RomneyCare became the model for ObamaCare, and a lot of conservatives are unhappy with Mitt Romney about that.

RomneyCare has a lot of good points but its big problem is skyrocketing costs. I accept the notion that nothing is free, but adding the 15% uninsured population to the health insurance rolls shouldn't increase costs by more than 15%, particularly when a lot of those costs were previously subsidized by taxpayers and insurance buyers through the uninsured pool. At the small business where I work, costs went up 33% in just 3 years, and we were forced to switch to a cheaper plan with less coverage.

That's where Mitt also has to apologize for bailing out of his Governorship in 2006, rather than sticking around for another term and making sure that RomneyCare worked. Instead, he turned that job over to Democrat Deval Patrick, whose campaign would be the test run for Barack Obama. Conservatives may want an apologize from Mitt for making possible the invention of Barack Obama too.

Romney's campaign has adopted "Believe in America" as his slogan, dropping the "No Apology" line. But even that may require an apology. It turns out that "Believe in America" was the name of the John Kerry and John Edwards bus tour when they were running for President and Vice President in the summer of 2004, as Democrats. Oops.

Update 4/13/2011: Here's the latest from Mitt on RomneyCare:

"One thing I learned is this, which is that you don't take ideas from a state and try to impose them on a whole nation."

That is exactly the wrong lesson. A better lesson is that if you enact a bold, visionary public initiative you should stay on the job and see it through to successful implementation.