Mitt Romney’s has a definite “Nixon Problem.”

Let’s start out by stating CLEARLY; Mitt Romney by all accounts, is a good man, both publicly and privately.

However, Mitt in his zeal to become POTUS is moving away from what he ideologically is, a slightly right of center wealthy, consensus-building politician who was born to privilege and never looked back.

Mitt, as with every other American, should perceive that there is nothing wrong with his station in life, or for that matter where he began. Wealth is not a disease and being born the son of a public servant, most likely gives one a certain insight to the lives of citizens in a beneficial way.

Although, as a matter of prudence, it might be advantageous to not highlight the years at Bain Capital, as a point of pride, it must be said that Bain is a legal, enterprise and while Romney was employed there, he was doing business in the acceptable manner of the times.

Romney’s “Nixon Problem” stems from the similarity of his rise, to that of the "public" Richard Nixon. That public image of President Nixon overtook the real Richard Nixon.

It was in 1948, while Nixon was running for congress for the second time that his camp developed the public political masquerade “Tricky Dick.” By eagerly joining, then moving to the front of the “red scare” parade, “Nixon,” the polarizing political creature was being birthed. His team created the public man, and his opponents eagerly created and applied the monniker

Records show that it wasn't so much a “fire in the belly,” moment that led Nixon to run for office in 1946, it was a conservative committee that wanted a congressional representative who they could control.

Throughout his public career, Richard Nixon seemed to be the epitome of the “bare knuckle rough and tumble” type politician, but that was the veneer on the budding caricature of the persona he was unwittingly building.

The events in his life before his career as a politician would lead one to think of a completely different path for the man named Nixon, yet the persona he developed became an entity that compelled the man to be the caricature.

Nixon went down the road he thought his handlers wanted him to go. He thought he could control it. He thought they could control it. He thought he could withstand the broadsides of the larger opposing community.

For a while he did. For nearly three decades he rode the tiger  and sustained no massive bites, but by the time the 1972 elections rolled around, he couldn’t  control the “Nixon,” that bestraddled the entire political world, like a star spangled Achilles.

Nixon the man was far less combative, far more progressive_ and too insecure to pull the reins and slow “Nixon,” the politician.

Nixon the man should’ve known that they would beat Senator George McGovern by a landslide in 1972. Everyone else knew it. 

By that time, the Democratic Party was tired. They were fed up with LBJ’s lies about Vietnam. The war continued to go badly. They were also weary and wary of the now splintering civil rights movement as it grew visibly more militant. The sixties left the Democratic Party, of 1972,  almost completely exhausted.

Nixon could've played it safe and cruised into another four years of surprisingly moderate and progressive leadership.

“Nixon,” the Politician would have none of it. He allowed the bare-knuckle world of his inner circle to continue to rape and pillage the political landscape,  McGovern wasn’t to be just beaten, he was to be crushed.

All of “Nixon’s” past would eventually catch up with him. He had, by this time, forged a “Jacob Marley” sized political chain of discontent . It was a thing of  wicked beauty, something that the caricature had labored long and hard on. However, Watergate became his “third ghost of politics future,” and he failed to heed the augury.  

Nixon the man might have out ran the rampage of the political figure long enough for him to get safely out of politics. He might've then pawned off “Nixon,” the political myth as a necessary political evil that he had to, with heavy heart, low these many burdensome, lonesome years, endure. 

Nixon the man did it all for the good of the country, he could say.

But alas, Nixon’s “Nixon Problem,” was too big even, for Nixon.

One cannot imagine, given the size of this larger than life malignant political shadow, how its’ siren song,  could possibly beguile any politician as it waits for another victim.

Mitt Romney may have it, but he doesn’t display that he posses the same level of tenacity of a Richard Nixon.

For years, it seemed, Romney seemed to avoid the tentacles of what the national G.O.P. machine is becoming, a far right puritanical gaggle of a vociferous shrinking minority.

Romney, unlike Nixon seems at his best where there is consensus building to be done and where comity rules the proceedings.

Why he doesn’t focus and build upon this part of his political makeup is unclear.

The machinery of the far right wants to grab hold of power, as does Romney. Right now, they are doing a delicate dance with each other. It seems that neither like very much about the other, yet many of the high-ranking G.O.P. authorities seem resigned to the high probability that they must inculcate Romney into the fold, as their nominee.

At his core, it seemed that Nixon’s insecurity led him to be, at first what they wanted him to be, then to become the “Richard Nixon,” so many came to dislike vehemently.

Mitt Romney however seems to be secure in who he is and where he came from. Why he pays attention to the enticement of the tiger to hop up on its back is a question only he can answer; Mitt, for his part is slowly sinking into the quagmire. He plays the game of a conservative. He talks the talk and tells the tales.

The danger is that at one point something is going to grab hold, dig in, start to synchronize the man with the myth.

In this age where much more money, much more technology  and a much angrier public tone feeds the beast that prowls the dark edges of the political realm, Mitt Romney’s “Nixon problem” could lead to much more destruction than just the Republican party machine.

 One shudders !!

The “Nixon Problem” in a nutshell.

Insecurity breeds attitude.

Attitude breeds animosity.

Animosity breeds hostility.

Hostility breeds retaliation.

Retaliation breeds retaliation. Retaliation breeds retaliation.  

Retaliation breeds retaliation.  

This breeds ultimate failure.

Cheers !!

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