Say Anything Blog

The most interesting part of Romney’s speech to the summit wasn’t so much what he said, but what he left unsaid.

I was quite surprised at the reaction he received when he took the stage.  I don’t know if it’s because he was the penultimate speaker of the event or what, but people went nuts when he came on stage.  It was a very strong reaction, but it had me wanting to march up to the stage, grab the microphone, and start shouting: Romneycare!

Because I knew Romney himself wouldn’t talk about it, and he didn’t.

Romney, like all the candidates, addressed the audience full of fiscal conservatives by saying all the right things about fiscal government.  He noted that while the newest leaders in Europe are looking to the America of Ronald Reagan for guidance on things like tax cuts, America’s Democrats are talking about raising taxes.  He noted that in America, the citizen should be sovereign and the state should be the servant.  And he also got plenty of jabs in at Hillary Clinton, but unlike every other Presidential candidate who took the stage at the summit he didn’t say one thing about her health care plan.

And again, I think it’s because Romney didn’t want her plan to be contrasted with what he did in Massachusetts before he departed the office of Governor there.

After his speech, while we were all eating the last dinner of the event, I got into a conversation with a conference attendee who was very impressed with Romney’s performance.  He said that his stock had risen quite a bit in his mind.  But when I related to this attendee the details of Romneycare as it was designed in Massachusetts his response was “Oh f***k that state and everyone who comes out of it.”

Which aren’t exactly the words I would have chosen, but I think it sums up what the reaction will be among the conservative base as the details of how Romney led as governor get out more and more.  It’s actually sort of surprising that so many know so little about it now.  A testament to Romney’s campaign people being able to keep a lid on things, I guess.

My good friend Carter Wood, who I got to sit with during Romney’s speech, was impressed by something Romney did say about embedded import taxes.  And it was an impressive comment that was spot-on, but there’s not much Romney can say at this point which will make up for the decidedly non-conservative policy decisions he made as Governor.