THE STUMP MARCH 14, 2012
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The Romney campaign, as well as the Last of the Mohican Moderates like David Frum, are doing their best to downplay Rick Santorum’s wins in Alabama and Mississippi by casting those states as deeply unrepresentative of the national electorate (less representative than American Samoa?). True, the Deep South will be irrelevant come November—when one party consistently wins 80-90 percent of the white vote, as the Republicans do in presidential elections in Mississsippi and Alabama, then you ain’t exactly swing territory.
But it’s also wrong to entirely dismiss Romney’s weak Southern showing out of hand. It would be one thing if moderate establishment-type Republicans had always struggled in the South—then his losses there could be chalked up to a longstanding ideological predilection. But this simply isn’t the case. George H.W. Bush, the lord of Kennebunkport; Bob Dole, the Kansan fixture of the Senate; and John McCain, the Sedonan campaign finance reformer all managed to win a basic level of acceptance among Southern Republicans that has so far eluded Romney.
Most of the commentary on this has focused on Romney’s religion, and to be sure there is some anti-Mormon bias at play. But I’m surprised that more haven’t focused on another contrast between Romney and his moderate Republican forerunners: They were war veterans, and he is not. In the region that prizes military service more than any other, Bush’s aviation heroics, Dole’s paralyzed right arm and McCain’s years in North Vietnamese captivity lent them fundamental credibility and a connection with voters, particularly fellow veterans. McCain might’ve disagreed about voters in South Carolina about immigration or climate change, but he could crack one of his Marine jokes, or go on one of his solemn Country First turns, and have the crowd eating out of his hand. With Dole and Bush, the appeal was less explicit, but it was still there; everyone knew where they’d been.
Romney has nothing to draw on here. Quite the opposite—when he was asked in 2007 why none of his five sons had served in the military, he answered, to widespread derision, “One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected.” Making matters trickier for Romney, this factor is in fact linked with his religion: He avoided being drafted during the Vietnam War by claiming an exemption for his 30-month missionary duty in France. Who knows, though, maybe he can salvage at least a slight bit out of value from this when he’s campaigning in Louisiana in the next two weeks. If you thought he was pandering with his talk of “cheesy grits” in Mississippi and Alabama, just wait til he starts breaking out his French when he’s surrounded by beignets and cafe au lait. Quel horreur.
21 comments
"Most of the commentary on this has focused on Romney's religion" The reason Romney has steered clear of his Mormon religion is that his real religion is money and he never passes up a chance to tell us he has a lot of it: $10,000.00 bets, "friends that own NASCAR teams," "a couple cadillacs," "$374 thousand for speaking fees is not very much," and he can afford to drive around with a purebred Irish Setter on top of his car just to make people jealous.
- Nusholtz
March 14, 2012 at 1:58pm
This is why it's so tragic that Rick Perry was such a dud as a candidate. If there was one thing he had going for him, it was being an former Air Force C-130 pilot. He would have had a lock on southern Republican voters on the military service issue. None of the current crop of candidates have any appeal to veterans on the identity level.
- brokensq
March 14, 2012 at 2:11pm
Nitpick: I think McCain was held in the Hanoi Hilton (as it was known), which wasn't Cong.
- timteeter
March 14, 2012 at 2:20pm
Good catch, timteeter. I knew better, and made the fix.
- Alec MacGillis
March 14, 2012 at 2:37pm
Reagan made it okay for a Republican presidential candidate never to have served (unless one subscribes to the view that southerners cannot distinguish real life from the movies). GHWB is remembered as being somewhat wispy, especially when compared to his battle ax spouse (hey, not my characterization of the man of the Bush house). And Dole, with his withered arm and erectile dysfunction, will never be remembered as a bad ass military type. If a draft dodger and a military deserter can win in southern states, so can a Mormon missionary.
- rayward
March 14, 2012 at 4:06pm
"And Dole, with his withered arm and erectile dysfunction, will never be remembered as a bad ass military type..." The ED was of cours simply the result of age; but the withered arm came as the result of having been machine-gunned by Germans during the Italian campaign. He spent about three years in hospital as a result of his wounds. So Bob certainly earned his purple heart, & certainly earned the respect that goes with grievous military injuries in the service of one's country. I do not remember him ever being the least bit braggadacious about his military service, nor do I remember him ever making a point of referring to his war injuries. (His coment about "Democrat wars" was ridiculous of course, but beside the point.)
- Haole45
March 14, 2012 at 5:53pm
brokensq - tragic if you don't require intelligence, compassion or ability to govern outside of a far right island of oil barons, religio-nutters and immigration kooks (most of America) I suppose.
- WandreyCer
March 14, 2012 at 6:49pm
George H.W. Bush is a great American. Read his life story and you *have* to be impressed with most of it. I like Joe Scarborough's summary, which he once included in a wonderful annihilation of the stupidity of Sarah Palin: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45687.html (You have to wade through some Reagan lionizing, but after that it's worth it...) After Palin mocked Reagan’s credentials, the TLC reality show star took aim at the 41st president and his wife. Borrowing again from old left-wing attacks that Democrats used against GOP presidents, Palin channeled Ann Richards by bashing Bush and his wife as “blue bloods” who had wrecked America. Palin was perturbed that a former president and his wife would dare to answer a question about whom they preferred for president in 2012. Perhaps her anger was understandable. After all, these disconnected “blue bloods” had nothing in their backgrounds that could ever make them understand “real America” like a former governor from Alaska who quit in the middle of her first term and then got rich. Maybe Richards and Palin were right. Maybe poor George Herbert Walker Bush was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Indeed, he was so pampered growing up that on his 18th birthday, the young high school graduate enlisted in the armed forces. This spoiled teenager somehow managed to be the youngest pilot in the Navy when he received his wings, flying 58 combat missions over the Pacific during World War II. On Sept. 2, 1944, “Blue Blood” Bush almost lost his life after being shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire. With his engine shattered and his plane on fire, Bush still refused to turn back, completing his mission by scoring several damaging hits on enemy targets. His plane crashed in the Pacific, where he waited for four hours in enemy waters until he was finally rescued. For his bravery and service to this country, Bush was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, three air medals and the Presidential Unit Citation for bravery while in combat. What a spoiled brat. I suppose Palin’s harsh dismissal of this great man is more understandable after one reads her biography and realizes that, like Bush, she accomplished a great deal in her early 20s. Who wouldn’t agree that finishing third in the Miss Alaska beauty contest is every bit as treacherous as risking your life in military combat? Maybe the beauty contestant who would one day be a reality star and former governor didn’t win the Distinguished Flying Cross, but the half-termer was selected as Miss Congeniality by her fellow contestants. And now a point of personal privilege. I work hard every day to assume the best of Americans who engage in public service. But I am offended by Palin’s attempt to build herself up by tearing down great men like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Bob Dole is also a great American. I thoroughly enjoyed, er, appreciated his memoir, One Soldier's Story. If you've been in the military, you'll like it. A fair amount of interesting WWII battle descriptions, and, iIrc, there's a rather humorous anecdote about his mother accidentally talking down a First Sergeant. I had the "privilege" of being part of a security detail for a George W. Bush visit to Fort Bragg about 4 years ago. He was addressing a mostly 82nd Airborne Division crowd, so he joked about how his elderly father was braver than he since Bush senior is famous for skydiving not too many years ago. W also attempted to incorporate the word "Hooah" in his remarks. Among the thousands of soldiers, paratroopers, and operators listening to him, it did not pass the smell test. Romney's connection with the troops is much more strained, I assure you. No one in uniform much respects him. I guess that's one thing I don't mind having in common with the majority of Mississippi & Alabama. Yuck.
- Konstantin
March 14, 2012 at 7:41pm
Haole45, you seem like an earnest person. I could have said that all Republicans are hypocritical assholes who make a hero out of a draft dodger like Reagan yet treat a real war hero like Bob Dole like a step child. Or I could use a little irony to make the same point. Assholes or irony? Which do you think is more effective?
- rayward
March 14, 2012 at 7:41pm
Damn formatting. The Scarborough column excerpt ends after "George H.W. Bush." My own words begin after that with "Bob Dole is also. . . " I don't know I continue to play with the italics monster. Obviously, all us lowly commenters expect the new owner facebook wiz kid guy to fix this issue.
- Konstantin
March 14, 2012 at 7:44pm
Good words, Konstantin (I was wondering where Scarborough's had ended :) ) I was just coming into political consciousness at the time when Dole and Bush I were on the scene. I think what made them so insufferable was that they kept leaning right, despite their own more moderate proclivities. As noted, I believe, in this magazine in that article about the extinction of the GOP moderates, they were too loyal to their party, even when that party was betraying its own better angels. If memory serves me, Dole had some nasty comment about Obama a month or two ago that struck me as unworthy of him, and he rather effectively participated in partisan warfare from 93-95. Gerald Ford, too, after a cordial meeting with Clinton, sent his fellow partisans a warning about Clinton's dangerous deviousness. But I digress.
- Curran1
March 14, 2012 at 10:00pm
Except for GHW Bush vs. Dukakis, the Presidential candidate with the weaker military record has won every election since 1976.
- ErnestDavis
March 15, 2012 at 12:15am
Ha ha! I didn't cause this italic! Anyway, we should honor, appreciate, and care for our military veterans. This does not qualify them or disqualify them for political office. Next topic?
- skahn
March 15, 2012 at 1:57am
This article is meaningless -- silly, waste of space. Neither Romney nor Obama (nor Gingrich or Santorum, for that matter) has any military record, so in this year's presidential race the issue is neutral. The race will be decided on grounds other than the candidates' military records.
- PeteBeck
March 15, 2012 at 8:14am
Points well taken about Romney's lack of military service -- but what about the same lack of military service (or at least serious military service) by George W. Bush? Last time I checked, he was pretty popular down South despite the fact that most veterans could plainly see through his BS about spending the Vietnam era defending Texas from Mexico.
- wildboy
March 15, 2012 at 9:02am
Rayward: "I could have said that all Republicans are hypocritical assholes who make a hero out of a draft dodger like Reagan yet treat a real war hero like Bob Dole like a step child." Now, that's a good way to put it. (But, hey, easy on the "draft dodger" talk! I resemble that remark too much myself!) But the observation that our Repub friends sometimes have a tough time discerning fantasy from reality is a valid one, whether the point is made by the blunt-force asshole designation, or the fine blade of irony. I did not really disagree with your statement that Dole may not have been received by southern Repubs as a warrior with cred, only that he should have been, were they more alert to reality.
- Haole45
March 15, 2012 at 12:39pm
Konstantin, When he was president, G.H.W. Bush's son, G.W. Bush, actually implied strongly that his father was a coward. He spoke of invading Iraq and finishing what his father started. As a draft dodger, G.W. had to best his father's heroism in WWII by going all the way to Baghdad and ousting Saddam Hussein. I don't know how that equates to flying combat missions in the Pacific, but G.W. finally surpassed his father in bravery--in his own mind. He must have felt especially inferior during the Viet Nam war, because it was his father who pulled some strings and kept him out of combat. G.W. has always felt inferior to his father (with good reason), even to the point of being jealous of Dad's exploits as a baseball player at Yale. He's been competing against him most of his life. He even "bested" him by getting the second term as president that his father didn't (and he managed to wreck America in that second term). Jeb Bush was the golden child in the Bush family, and, of course, G.W. resented that, too. Lots of turmoil and jealousy in one of America's First Families. As for Palin, don't take too seriously what she says. She's a demagogue, and demagogues will say anything to get people riled up. Thanks for the cogent response to the Windbag From Wasilla. (ITALICS NOT MINE!)
- magboy47.
March 15, 2012 at 1:00pm
BTW, I remember John Wayne being also treated like a virtual war hero & inspirational patriotic figure by many on the right during the Vietnam era - largely based on his performance in a movie about the Green Berets. (Undergirded by his earlier performances in WWII propaganda flicks, like The Sands of Iwo Jima, which I though was very cool when I was about 10 years old.) The fact that Wayne was 4F during WWII, & never served a day in uniform did not diminish the ardor of these folks for him. He just looked to part so well, and that was good enough - a triumph of image over reality.
- Haole45
March 15, 2012 at 1:04pm
The people who "prize military service" don't give two straws about a candidate's actual military service any more than the people who prize "family values" care about the fact that the Obamas have a successful marriage whereas Gingrich is a serial adulterer. McGovern's heroic war record did not do him one iota of good in the South or anywhere else. To be fair, GHW Bush's probably didn't count much in his favor either; he didn't seem like the war hero type.
- ErnestDavis
March 15, 2012 at 4:57pm
Yeah, I'm not at all about requiring military service or a record of military heroism in our top leaders, but I would guess I'm in the minority here in saying that HW's CIA Directorship is a plus in his resumé. At the very least, it's an indication of the old man's, um, intelligence, which has always been superior to W's in every way.
- Konstantin
March 15, 2012 at 8:49pm
@ EarnestDavis: Nice parallel between the family values issue & the military service one, with respect to the way political figures have actually lived their lives. And McGovern - oh my, yes. There was a guy who was an actual true war hero, who saw his buddies blown out of the sky on B24 missions, but who came back repeatedly to fly hazardous mission after hazardous mission. Did anyone on the right ever acknowledge his outstanding service record? I can't remember any such recognition.
- Haole45
March 16, 2012 at 2:04pm