Turning the Other Cheek to Donald Trump
Jules Witcover

Now that Mitt Romney has corralled enough delegates to the Republican National Convention to assure his presidential nomination, political wisdom might suggest that he end his conspicuous romancing of his party's right wing and start reaching out to the rest of the electorate.

He was handed a golden opportunity to do so the other day at a major fund-raising event also attended by his celebrity backer Donald Trump. The loquacious developer/television star not surprisingly repeated his suspicions that Barack Obama was not born on American soil and hence was not qualified to run for president in 2008.

Romney had already said that he believes Obama was born in Hawaii, as an official state birth certificate has documented. But he declined when confronted by reporters to rebuff Trump, observing, "I don't agree with all the people who support me. ... But I need to get 50.1 percent or more." Instead, he thanked Trump "for twisting the arms that it takes to bring a fund-raiser together."

This was what has come in politics to be known as "a Sister Souljah moment." The reference is to the way candidate Bill Clinton in his 1992 presidential campaign castigated a prominent African American rapper who observed after riots in Los Angeles that "if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?"

Clinton's attack was widely seen as a counterintuitive tactic, a willingness to court white voters by criticizing a favorite of black voters as he was fighting for the Democratic nomination against civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.

Now, here was an ideal opportunity for Romney to seize a similar moment to chastise Trump for keeping afloat the so-called "birther" issue against Obama.

Instead, Romney fell back on the old "everyone's entitled to his own opinion" dodge, adding his acknowledgment that winning came first, no matter what the cost. The Obama camp immediately asked: "If Mitt Romney lacks the backbone to stand up to a charlatan like Donald Trump, because he's so concerned about lining his campaign's pockets, what does that say about the kind of president he would be?"

Romney's limp response was in contrast to Obama's own choice to seize "a Sister Souljah moment" presented to him in his 2008 presidential campaign. It came in incendiary remarks made by his Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, including, "Not God bless America, God damn America." Obama said he was "outraged and saddened" by this and other Wright remarks and broke off with him, effectively neutralizing a damaging campaign issue.

When a recent plan to resurrect Obama's old ties to Wright was drawn up and submitted to the Romney campaign, it was wisely disavowed and disowned by Romney, obviously aware that it could backfire on him. But Romney's tepid response to Trump's reiterations that Obama's Hawaii birth certificate might not be "authentic" was a missed opportunity to disavow the publicity-hungry Trump himself.

Romney's own candid rationale for not cutting Trump loose seemed to be that he's willing to do whatever it takes to win the presidency. But it took him a long time to shake off a weak field of contenders because so many primary and caucus doubted his personal convictions. Throwing Trump over the side might have persuaded these doubters that he had convictions of his own.

From all recent polling, Romney has made good headway in consolidating support within the Republican Party, focused as it continues to be on making Obama a one-term president. Even women voters, who have shown a strong preference for the Democratic incumbent up to now, appear to be giving Romney a second look now that he has the GOP nomination in hand.

But he remains a cautious, low-risk candidate whose chances of success rest in large part on the perception that Obama is mired in economic doldrums. Despite some signs that recovery is inching forward, the Romney campaign seems willing continue to cast him as Mr. Fix-it and not give offense to anybody, including Donald Trump. Except, of course, to Barack Obama.

 

Twitter: @ihavenet

Read the latest political news.

Receive Political Commentary Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner and iHaveNet.com

 

 

Turning the Other Cheek to Donald Trump | Politics

 

(c) 2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc.