David Brooks Tells Us That We Should Vote For Romney's Great Grandparents

David Brooks describes the struggles that Mitt Romney's great grandparents went through, and tells us that this was a more important factor in his developing his character than growing up in very wealthy and powerful family. He compares the struggles of Romney's great grandparents with the the Jewish Exodus (which will help with the Jewish vote). Personally, I agree with him that great wealth should not exclude Romney from the presidency. I also agree with him that Romney's character is marked by great drive and ambition. I doubt, however, that it had anything to do with the struggles that his great grandparents endured. My concern is that his ambition to become the president, might have affected his character. In order to win the GOP nomination he has had to lie about his greatest achievement as Governor of Massachusetts, which he once believed would help his candidacy. He did so because the plan was a model for the healthcare policy of the Obama administration that the GOP base was taught to hate. He also lies about the president. Obama is not a socialist engaged in class warfare. He believes that the Bush tax cuts should expire according to the law passed by Congress. The tax cuts were made temporary in the law because they were sold as a needed stimulus to an economy in recession. (The GOP supported Keynesian stimulus under Bush). They were also made temporary because the tax cuts would have created large budget deficits in the future if they were permanent. The GOP, apparently, is no longer concerned about the impact of tax cuts on budget deficits. Looming deficits are the excuse for cutting government spending on programs that they do not like.

I recognize that politicians are not always truthful. On the other hand, the Mitt Romney that is running for the GOP nomination has been trying to sell himself to the GOP as another person. Methinks perhaps that Caesar is too ambitious.

If Obama were a Republican, I expect that David Brooks would make up a beautiful story about how his father's family grew up in Kenya and overcame hardships. Those experiences would have shaped Obama's character and made him a good candidate for the presidency. Brooks is very good at making up human interest stories.