Leadership and Mitt Romney's Religion Speech

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave 'the speech' yesterday in response to what he perceives as religious discrimination in the polling taking place in Iowa right now, given the recent surge by Mike Huckabee. What we saw was brilliant stagecraft and a good old college try at misdirection.

Mr. Romney is not going down in the polls because of his religion; his fall is directly related to qualms voters have with his leadership abilities and credibility as a candidate. After the disappointments of the George W. Bush administration, conservatives are rightly skeptical of any candidate who exhibits a lack of steadfastness when it comes to the critical issues they deem most important.

Leadership is all about integrity and dependability. Those under your charge must believe you if you are to lead a team. They cannot for a moment have doubts about what you are saying or your motivations for particular thoughts or actions. When you really get down to it, a strong intellect is important but more important is the integrity that gives the confidence necessary to follow a leader into battle.

Romney (along with many of the other candidates in this field) has a huge problem with credibility due to his shifting positions on the essential issues. His religion is a side issue sure to be giving him with some zealots to be sure but when it comes down to it, evangelicals would likely accept his religion if they thought he would get done the things he says he will. I am here to tell you that they don't.

It is not just his positions on the social issues, where his reversals are now the stuff of political legend. It is also the candidate who disavowed the Reagan revolution; the candidate who criticized the Bush tax cuts (still the best thing the President has done in a term of few major accomplishments); the candidate who all about endorsed illegal immigration in past statements; the candidate who raised fees by $500 million and increased spending; the candidate who mandated government led insurance.

This all adds up to a candidate whose major flaw is that it appears he would say anything, anytime to be popular or get elected. This is not the stuff of leadership. Not that his opponents are wonderfully consistent either, mind you. Mr. Huckabee now sounds like Tom Tancredo on immigration when as governor of Arkansas; he championed benefits for the children of illegal aliens. Mr. Huckabee has famously been a taxer and spender as a governor; he uses a selective memory to only talk about his tax cuts, not the increases. Rudy Giuliani makes himself sound like an arch defender of gun rights when he had just the opposite position as Mayor of New York. Ditto positions on immigration, taxes, spending and you name it.

What Romney did in Houston was a stunning attempt at an old football strategy: misdirection. Just when voters are starting to focus on the issues and his 'reversals', give them something else - claim religious discrimination as the reason for your opponent's surge. It may work! Especially if the punditry continues its breathless descriptions of 'the speech'. Color me doubtful.

If I were Huckabee, I wouldn't be so sanguine about my own record. Mike is the new beneficiary of the 'none of the above' vote in the Republican primary, now that Fred Thompson has disappointed conservatives who placed such stock in his candidacy. Huckabee's record in Arkansas will not thrill conservatives looking for the next Reagan; conservatives will be even more disappointed when they learn he opposes school choice as well.

What to do? Your guess is as good as mine. I, for one, am hoping for 2012. I don't hope for a Democrat victory but I also don't want another fake conservative who does more damage to the brand. That is another step backward we can't afford.