Mitt Romney entered the race this week and already I'm disappointed. First, he still backs Romneycare. If government mandates that you have car insurance if you want to drive, that's one thing. One can opt not to drive and bypass this cost. The cost is associated with a privilege (i.e. driving). But when government mandates that you have health insurance if you want to not be a criminal, that's something entirely different. Granted, Romney has a point when he argues there is a difference between a state-mandate and a federal government mandate. He is arguing for federalism. Let the states be laboratories and great ideas will spread while bad ones will wither away. A federal mandate doesn't allow for bad ideas to wither away. But here's the thing: how can the electorate believe you want to restrain government when you clearly didn't at the state level? Furthermore, how can you make Obamacare a campaign issue when you have the albatross of Romneycare to bear? He neutralizes a huge campaign issue with his stance. Strike one on Romney.
During a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Romney stated his belief that humans contribute to global warming. "It’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors." As I have said many times before, the earth was hotter 1000 years ago and there were no SUVs. At one point, the earth was so hot that Maine was in the tropics and northern Alaska was a rain forest. But this time around, it's our fault and we need to take measures that will have no demonstrable effect other than to impoverish our economy. Moreover, China will not participate in this folly, thus assuring America's relative decline. Strike two on Romney.
The campaign has hardly begun and he's already got two strikes against him. I would prefer him to Obama but he looks like this year's McCain.
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