Romney the 'Phony'

'Tis the season for political endorsements. A show of support from a newspaper, Hollywood actor, or fellow politician can create a sense of momentum when heading into the final stretch of a campaign. Most newspaper nods will spill ink in support of a presidential candidate and sometimes even discuss the merrits of a second person running, such as the Des Moines Register did when it endorsed Hillary Clinton, but singled out Barack Obama as possessing the right stuff to be president.

"When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we know it," the newspaper said. "Mitt Romney is such a candidates. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no."

Pretty hyperbolic stuff. And there is more bad news for Mitt. Both the (relatively liberal) Boston Globe and the (relatively conservative) Boston Herald, two papers that know Romney better than any others in the nation after covering his tenure as Massachusetts governor, have declined to endorse him. They throw their support to John McCain instead. McCain is rising fast in New Hampshire. Rest assured, Mitt has taken notice.

The perception that Romney is a phony, to use the Concord Monitor's (circulation of roughly 20,000) term, has been building for a while now. Readers of this blog may have read the posts that Eric and I have put up on the subject of whether or not Romney and/or his father ever marched with Martin Luther King Jr., as Mitt has often claimed. That story continues to develop. The latest can be read here. But the King episode is just one instance in what some see as a larger pattern of behavior. There was the assertion that Romney is a "lifelong hunter" (twice chasing after varmint, doesn't quite qualify you), and that he received the NRA's endorsement back in 2002 (he didn't), too. Add these little truth hiccups to what the Monitor sites as Romney's well-known equivocation on abortion rights, driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, stem cell research, access to emergency contraception, and whether he'd sign a no tax pledge, and the case is made for why Romney "surely must be stopped."

But it's not all paper cuts and vinegar for Romney. Iowa's Sioux City Journal (circulation of roughly 40,000) sees Mitt in a different light. To their eyes, Mitt "has shown an ability to reach across the partisan divides, and he is passionate on the campaign trail. In terms of leadership qualities, he possesses 'it,' and the importance of 'it' should not be diminished."

It? With all due respect to the Sioux City Journal, maybe they should have tried an anti-endorsement instead. This one sounds a tad phony.