Mitt Romney’s home state isn’t Massachusetts, where he was governor, but Michigan, where he grew up. Even today, the Romney family is the biggest political name in the Great Lakes State.
I know because I grew up there about the same time as Mitt (left picture). His father, George (right picture), was governor from 1963-1969, when Nixon apointed him the Dud from HUD (where he tried to spread the blight of “urban renewal” to the suburbs).
As governor, George was so bad that, in 1967, Detroiters rioted and burned down large parts of the city (see picture). George R. was so incompetent that his own Michigan State Police and National Guard couldn’t quell the riots and the 82nd Airborne Division, 
bloodied from fighting the man in the black pajamas over in Nam, had to be called in by President LBJ to restore order.
If Mitt becomes president, maybe the All Americans will have to be called in from Iraq for the same duty in the same city — or your city.
A major, global city, which I remember from my youth as beautiful and bountiful, was leveled. Detroit helped make the weapons that turned Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Hamburg, and Dresden into molten glass in WWII. Those cities recovered. Detroit hasn’t.
It was after George Romney’s riots that the MC5 shouted the song, “Motor City is Burning” :
Ya know, the Motor City is burning babe,
there ain’t a thing in the world that they can do.
Ya know, the Motor City is burning people,
there ain’t a thing that white society can do.
Ma home town burning down to the ground,
worser than Vietnam.
G. Romney essentially was a liberal, Rockefeller Republican who favored big taxes and big government. His 1968 presidential bid fizzled. Republicans even preferred Nixon to him.
Why Michiganders, especially Republicans, would want another Romney to run anything is a mystery.
But favorite sons tend to do well in their home states, no matter what. As I write, Mitt is carrying Mittchigan with 39% of the vote (as of 7 p.m. California time). Back in 68, Papa George, despite having pulled out of the race, got votes from 44 of 48 Michigan delegates — 92% — at the Republican Convention in Miami.
On the positive side, Ron Paul is beating Giuliani again for fourth place. It’s time for Rudi to quit. This is the kind of state — big, Northern, industrial, “ethnic” — that he’s supposed to win.
Huckabee also should call it quits after another dismal third-place finish. He should have done better, too. A lot of his fellow Southern Baptists moved up to Michigan to work in the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II and stayed for the high paychecks and bad weather. That didn’t help the Huckster.
Thompson napped through it all again and should sleep for the rest of the campaign.
For that matter, Mitt Romney should quit, despite “winning” Michigan. He got just 39% of the “favorite son” vote.
Let’s narrow the GOP down to just two candidates: McCain, the Establishment’s favorite “Maverick” (yeahrightyeahrightyeahrightyeahrightyeahrightyeahright
yeahrightyeahrightyeahrightyeahrightyeahrightyeahright
yeahrightyeahrightyeahrightyeahrightyeahrightyeahright)…
…and Ron Paul, America’s Great Libertarian Hope.
Let Paul and McCain, both septegenarians and Military veterans — one, McCain, favoring, massive, intrusive, expensive, warmongering, totalitarian, centralized government; the other, Paul, favoring freedom — go at it.
Mano a mano.
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January 16, 2008 at 4:04 pm |
Great stuff, John. I loved this classic Seiler: “Detroit helped make the weapons that turned Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Hamburg, and Dresden into molten glass in WWII. Those cities recovered. Detroit hasn’t.” Well at least George Romney helped bring about one of the best punk bands, just as the Labour Party brought about the Clash and the Sex Pistols.