Romney, the Anti-Obama

Although the formal proclamation won’t be made until his party’s convention in August, the Republican pre-candidate for the presidency of the United States, Mitt Romney, can start removing the prefix “pre”: he will run against current head of state Barack Obama in November. On Tuesday, when he gained 88 delegates in the Texas primaries, reaching the magical number of 1,144 which assures triumph in the convention, this 65-year-old businessman and former governor of Massachusetts ceased to be simply the leader of the Republican race and is now his party’s candidate for the presidency.

A few months ago, when Obama’s lead against each of the Republican pre-candidates was wide, it didn’t matter much who won. But the latest polls reveal a virtual tie between the current president and Romney, such that a tiny percentage could determine who occupies the White House between 2012 and 2016. And so both campaigns have opted to strongly attack their opponents rather than praise their own candidates. Romney’s win finds Obama in a difficult situation. His renewable energy projects have been a failure (the bankruptcy of various businesses cost taxpayers millions), his health plan (2,409 pages long) is under constant attack and the tangled international scene doesn’t favor him: the European Union finds itself in a serious economic predicament, the advance of China is uncontainable and Washington is unable to dismantle the civil war in Syria.

In contrast, the name Romney doesn’t have international resonance, except in the sporting arena. There he is remembered as the savior of the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Games. The Olympics were threatened by corrupt acts in the selection of the host city, financial crisis and the risk of new terrorist attacks like those carried out in 2001 against New York and Washington. When Romney, a member of the Mormon Church whose Vatican is in Salt Lake City, was named director, he cleaned up the finances, organized an impeccable security system and carried out the Games successfully. Today, his Olympic management is one of the greatest arguments in his favor against the onslaught of the Obama campaign, which paints Romney as an inept and irresponsible manager who failed in the private sector.

While Obama is a middle-class African American, Romney’s image is that of a multimillionaire out of touch with the national reality. His wife owns two Cadillacs and an expensive team of dressage horses. To make things worse, Donald Trump, the preposterous magnate, eccentric and egomaniacal — straight out of the series Dallas — joined his campaign. Trump stole some of Romney’s spotlight in Texas when he turned up at a Republican fundraising event. There he maintained, once again, that Obama wasn’t born in the United States and should, therefore, have his presidency revoked. This slander was refuted with documental evidence years ago and rejected by John McCain, the Republican rival defeated by Obama in 2008. Today, Romney keeps quiet and calculates in private that if such a falsehood helps raise money, it’s welcome.

Another problem for Romney is his faith: he is the first Mormon to reach such a high political position. And even if the Mormons are a minority with unusual beliefs, it was said of John F. Kennedy that he wouldn’t reach the White House because he was Catholic. And he reached it. In the five months before the elections we will see the attacks intensify. Obama’s advantage is that as president he has more initiative and more reflectors than his rival.