Romney’s appearance on Fox News Sunday this past weekend confirmed that Romney should not be a candidate for President in 2016. Indeed, his inability to answer any of Chris Wallace’s questions at all made it painfully clear why he lost his election bid in 2012.
The first question had to do with the old “outsourcing jobs” bit, which has been an omnipresent theme in several races, such as Quinn for Governor in Illinois, and Purdue for Senate in Georgia. The way Chris Wallace asked about it gave Romney the perfect chance to explain how the outsourcing attack is utter nonsense, but instead, he virtually ignored the opportunity by not answering and addressing Wallace’s question. All he did was basically state that the Democrats make ad hominem attacks…and that’s about it. Nothing about how those relocated jobs can and do strengthen American business. Nothing about how the U.S. economy can’t support many of these businesses anymore, so they have to go elsewhere. Nothing about how, in some scenarios, not exporting jobs to stay globally competitive often means, as a result, firing people and closing the business outright. But Romney — the businessman, mind you — ignored all of this and acted as if the other side was right.
The second question Romney messed up was in regard to immigration reform. Wallace suggested that the Senate passed a comprehensive plan but that the House GOP refused to pass it. Here, Romney ignored this point again, saying that well, if the GOP gets control of the Senate, they can make immigration laws too. He totally failed to point out that the comprehensive immigration bill was a Democrat style bill which contained provisions unacceptable to the GOP regarding spending and border control.
The last question was in regard to Reince Priebus’ 11 points. Wallace asked Romney if he thought it was a mistake for the GOP to have made these points. Romney basically ignored it. He could have talked about once the elections are won, the GOP can move forward. But he didn’t.
To use a baseball analogy, it was strike three. Romney is not a good contender. We need someone that knows how to answer the damn question, to articulate the positions of the GOP on their feet. To prepare the points that need to be made, get the sentence out swiftly and succinctly. The nominee for 2016 needs to be able to think quickly, defend liberty, promote prosperity, and speak the principles that we hold dear. Romney has proven, once and for all, that he is unable to do such a thing.