How Mitt Romney Differs From His Father: George Romney Stood For Something

Mitt Romney idolizes his father and refers to him as “the real deal.” In fact, some of his father’s advisers don’t believe Mitt has his dad’s sense of conviction. George Romney grew to oppose the Vietnam war and imposed a state tax as governor of Michigan, something Mitt now criticizes.

Fiscally conservative but socially moderate, dedicated to forging a Republicanism that invested itself in problems of race and American inner cities, he irked conservative elements of his party. A national figure after his election as Michigan’s governor in 1962, he fought vainly for a civil rights plank in the 1964 Republican Convention platform and, afterward, refused to support the party’s nominee, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, an opponent of far-reaching civil rights legislation. “My dad was a champion of civil rights when some in the Republican Party questioned the civil rights movement,” Romney proudly remembers.

George took risks because of what he believed in. Mitt plays it safe.

Walter DeVries, a prominent [George Romney] adviser, views the younger Romney as something of a casualty from 1968: “Mitt is gun-shy from what they did to his father.”

DeVries added in an e-mail: “There was [a] significant difference between Mitt and his father — Mitt’s inability or unwillingness to take chances. Mitt did, of course, take a huge, unpredictable risk in his [Massachusetts] health-care program. . . . But, today, Mitt is totally predictable. He will always take the perceived safe answer or course.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.