"I long for a day where, instead of having people to go to Washington for 20 and 30 years who get elected and then when they lose office they stay there and make money as lobbyists or connecting to businesses, I think it stinks," he said. "I think we oughta have people go to Washington and serve ... and go home. I'd like to see term limits in Washington." At first blush this doesn't make a lot of sense. Term limits would arguably increase the number of politicians who, having exhausted their time as elected officials, would go through the revolving door to work for lobbying firms of industries that are particularly reliant on influencing federal lawmakers.
But it makes more sense in light of subsequent exchanges.
Newt Gingrich, who traded on his time as House speaker to earn millions from Freddie Mac, health care firms, and other industry interests, attacked Romney for his critique of career politicians. "Can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney?" Gingrich said. " ... You didn't have this interlude of citizenship while you thought about what to do. You were running for president while you were governor. You've been running consistently for years and years and years. So this idea that suddenly citizenship showed up in your mind, just level with the American people.
Bush's personality -- his reasonableness, his decency, his empathy -- is the glue of his politics. Oddly enough, they also explain how so mythic a life can seem somehow trivial. George Bush has never been immutably tied to the great currents of his time. He's no trailblazer. His political motives aren't as much linked to a special vision of the body politic as they are to his family's dedication to proving itself again and again. The presidency, as Ernest Obermeyer said, is Bush's ultimate challenge, the final affirmation. This isn't a flaw in his character.
It is the heart of his character.
The simultaneous appeal and reaction against Mitt Romney isn't surprising, because it's an old story in American politics. Part of us wants a ruling class that is beyond being bribed and is confident in its judgments about what the nation needs... and part of us hates the idea of an arrogant S.O.B. so convinced of his own fitness to lead that he is willing to behave in ways that men with less egocentric convictions and strong characters wouldn't behave in order to achieve that goal.
George H.W. Bush won the presidency in 1988, and narrowly lost against both Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Bill Clinton in 1992, two men who combined natural leadership with a passion for the issues. As far as I can see, there is no one in the GOP race that combines those winning qualities. Thus the likelihood that Romney, about whom many are conflicted, will be the nominee. Do you know what well-known Republican isn't especially conflicted about Romney in 2012?
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