Romney Defined

Mitt Romney's job at the Republican National Convention was to define himself. When he started talking about his grandparents and referring to America as a nation of immigrants, he was reminding all of us that we claim is country with all nationalities. An expansive statement.

Then the camera cut to the RNC delegates. Over 90% white.

He had been introduced by a Cuban-American. Despite the fact that Republican policies actively harm them, Florida's Senator Marco Rubio had offered a wonderful speech that encouraged Cuban-Americans to vote Republican. To the extent they do, they find their state is presently purging voter lists of anyone with an Hispanic last name.

Romney spoke of his parents and his father, who obviously did those little things that would please his wife. If you're married and you are not regularly doing things for your spouse, your marriage won't last. For some reason, Romney's story about his father's death reminded me of my friend, John Scagliotti, who was the first Executive Producer of "In the Life," a nationally-airing television newsmagazine covering gay, lesbian and transgendered issues and culture.

When I started editing for the show back in the 1990s, John lost his longtime partner. Mr. Romney wants to forbid gay marriage. It is heartbreaking to lose someone that close, and it is even worse if a hospital won't let you visit your partner, since you are not next-of-kin or family.

Mitt Romney also praised his wife for the great job she did raising their five children. So did my mother. And my mother was not married to a multi-millionaire with bank accounts in Switzerland nd the Caymen Islands. Mrs. Romney has Multiple Sclerosis, which is very sad. My mother died from Leukemia. Both women needed health insurance, but my mother was on Medicare after she retired and her healthcare and insurance was affordable to her because of that. Mr. Romney's running mate would give my mother a coupon and allow insurance companies to deny coverage due to her pre-existing condition.

If you are a multimillionaire and you have MS, you don't live with the fear that you will lose your only home if your insurance company suddenly rescinds their coverage.

Then Romney decided he had defined himself enough, after having defined the people around him and the people who raised him. And he began to talk about President Obama, saying that it would be OK to vote against him if you voted for him four years ago.

He spoke about how we are not better off  than we were four years ago. I don't know about you, but my 401(k) is no longer in the toilet. The stock market hs recovered all of its losses. I am not drawing unemployment and I am a small businessman. While I do see businesses fail, the housing market is beginning to pick up.

A tax increase will not change anything about my small business. I shall continue to operate. I may have to make a couple of additional sales, but under Romney's plan to put the burden of tax increases on the middle class in order to give himself a bigger tax break, I'll need to make at least three more to pay for the Romney increase.

Anyone need a website?

So, the remainder of Mr. Romney's speech was all about trying to define President Obama, not Mitt Romney. I think, going forward, that is going to be a problem. Because President Obama and the Democrats will continue to define Romney. And that is a strategy that, in view of all of the fundamental changes Romney has appeared to make in his outlook, has not worked for Mr. Romney in the past.

This was a golden opportunity, and one that was utterly missed. What remains to be seen is if the Republican Party hangs Mitt out to dry like they did with Bob Dole in October, 1996. Perhaps the SuperPACs will stick with him.