Romney’s Failure to Reach Across the Aisle -
- Mitt Romney’s campaign is telegraphing that he’ll talk about his faux bipartisanship tonight. The debate hasn’t even started yet, and they’re already pushing an argument that is completely divorced from reality. The truth is Romney didn’t reach across the aisle in Massachusetts like he claims. Instead his style was reportedly marked by “disinterest in bipartisan collaboration.”
- Romney often put his Presidential ambitions over his responsibilities as governor. He left town for more than 200 days in his last year in office to test the waters for his first presidential campaign instead of working with legislators – the New York Times reported that he was an “absentee chief executive.”
- According to Massachusetts lawmakers, Romney “didn’t deliver” as governor and “couldn’t care enough” to work with them. Then-House Speaker Tom Finneran felt Romney tended to issue “marching orders” rather than seek advice while former State Senate President Tom Birmingham said calling him “disengaged” would be “charitable.”
- As governor, Romney’s office wasn’t open to legislators and neither was he. He dismantled a network of legislative liaisons, commandeered a statehouse elevator for his own personal use and even had state troopers put up a velvet rope in front of his office.
- Romney won’t reach across the aisle as President either. Instead he’ll be a rubber stamp for Congressional Republicans who want to lay off more teachers, police and firefighters. For his running mate, Romney picked Congressman Paul Ryan, one of the most polarizing Republicans in Washington.
- Romney has bowed down to the Republican Party’s extreme-right fringe throughout this campaign, even calling himself the Tea Party’s “ideal candidate.”He promises to defund Planned Parenthood, has embraced Ryan’s extreme budget and he’s the most extreme nominee on immigration in modern history.
Dealing with Congress is tough for any President, but President Obama has proven that he can get things done when we need him to. He rescued the auto industry, ended the Iraq war and passed health insurance reforms that keep insurance companies from denying coverage to patients with preexisting conditions.
