Ranting On...Ann Romney

I’m not even sure I have enough to say about this, but I am A) oddly without opinions this week and B) you all seem to have swiftly moved beyond my other topic of the week, the revoked nomination for Alone Yet Not Alone (okay-I’ll do a quick rant here-I get why they went against the film, but I feel like if this had been a more critically-acclaimed or commercially-successful or even more socially liberal film that they wouldn’t have made this jump and I think it’s a crime that they don’t give Lana del Rey or Alex Ebert or Taylor Swift or whomever truly earned that fifth nomination their moment in the sun).

But what’s really bugging me this week is that woman who just can’t get over her husband losing over a year ago.  Ann Romney said on FOX News earlier today, “we lost, but truly the country lost, by not having Mitt as president.”  She later said she would be “polite and nice and not comment” on her thoughts regarding President Obama’s second term in office.

Listen, Ann, I get there’s a home movie documentary out right now regarding your husband, but is this really the way you want to make headlines?  I don’t know why I’m asking that-this is the way that she wants to make headlines.  One of the most frustrating thing about the past election (it feels like it was just last year, but it’s 2014, isn’t it, and as the media will point out every chance it gets, it’s time to focus on 2016…it was in fact time in December 2012 according to the media) was the Romneys’ continually playing the “victim” card.

I get it-presidential races are brutal.  It sucks having everyone in the media saying literally everything about you.  I’m guessing this is particularly rough when you’re the one who has to endure all of the hardships, and they’re being directed toward the person you love most in the world.  It sucks, and there are things that were levied at Governor Romney in the last election that felt wildly unfair (in particular, the attacks on his religion).

However, I find it beyond frustrating that the Republicans, and Ms. Romney in particular, have spent so much time before and after blaming the electorate for their loss, rather than their own campaign and political positions.  This is certainly not the only time that the Romney clan has stated that if the electorate “got to know” their patriarch that he would have won.  The problem with this argument is, though, that the fact that America never really got to know this man is mostly on him.  Few people have dominated the American political landscape more in the past decade that Mitt Romney.  From his high-profile tenure as governor of Massachusetts to his two failed presidential elections, he likely has a name recognition level in America that is unrivaled by anyone not named Bush, Clinton, or Obama.  And yet, how is it possible that we haven’t gotten to know him better?

Quite frankly, it isn’t really, and if it is, it’s due to Mitt’s own inability to connect with voters.  While I’ll take their word for the fact that Mitt Romney is much looser and funnier in person, why didn’t that ever come across in the softball interviews he and his wife did for talk shows and magazines?  The Romneys frequently bring up that he’s an avid family man and great husband/father, but let’s be honest, does anyone actually doubt that?  The problem here isn’t that people didn’t believe that Mitt Romney was good to his family (even the most partisan of people can see he’s devoted to them), it’s that it didn’t win him the White House.

And that’s what bugs Ann Romney most.  This is a woman who clearly cannot handle a loss.  I frequently imagine that political losses, especially at this high level, are hardest on spouses.  The actual candidates spend every day in the trenches, immersing themselves in polls and are more than aware that they could win or lose.  Spouses, on the other hand, have to put themselves completely on-display.  They have the press deriding their personal lives, their appearances, their speaking abilities without ever having made the commitment to that aspect of public life.  And they’re the ones that see the crushed dreams of their spouse, who came so close to achieving a lifelong ambition just to fail at the finish line.

However, most of them keep their attacks on the winning administration private.  You don’t hear Cindy McCain grousing about the Obamas.  It’s long been rumored that Rosalynn Carter was not a fan of President Reagan, but you didn’t see that publicly.  Tipper Gore, Joan Mondale, even Barbara Bush (who can famously hold a grudge) all stayed classy when it came to the men who beat their husbands.  And there’s a reason for this-in order for the country to move forward after a divided election (no matter which side wins, tens of millions of people voted for the other side) the election needs to end.  Ann Romney continually bringing up her husband’s loss and deriding the president and those who voted for him continues the negativity of the previous election, and if there’s one thing we don’t need more of in Washington politics, it’s negativity.

So Ann Romney, I understand where you’re coming from, but (at least publicly) it’s time to move on and admit that people didn’t want your husband to be president.  It wasn’t because they didn’t get to know him.  It wasn’t because of gifts.  It wasn’t because they didn’t understand the issues.  It’s because they wanted Barack Obama to be president more.  Case closed.