Mitt Romney Fails Again

The first public thing Mitt Romney did in the year 2019 -- on Jan. 1 -- was publish an attack on President Trump in the Washington Post, which, as we know, has not lacked for attacks on Trump.

He did not even wait until being sworn in, two days later.

I campaigned for Sen. Mitt Romney when he ran for president, including a closed-door meeting with him to raise funds among wealthy Los Angeles Republicans. As it turns out, I worked to elect a somewhat foolish man with few identifiable convictions. (For the record, I would do so again, since just about any Republican president will do less damage to the country than any leftist -- and Democratic politicians are now all leftists.) Life is filled with disappointments, and I will survive this one. But I should explain why this Romney column is so disappointing.

First the foolish part. What did Romney seek to achieve by publishing an attack on his own party's president? Did he think he would persuade one supporter of the president to stop supporting him? If he did, he failed, not because none of us can be persuaded to change our minds but because the piece was so intellectually and morally shallow.

So, why did he write it? And why did he publish it in the Washington Post, a Trump-hating newspaper? Does he share the Washington Post's political, social and moral values? Did he think he would enlighten Washington Post readers, the vast majority of whom already loathe the president, the Republican Party and the half of the country that voted for Donald Trump?

Of course not.

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