A WEEK after the contentious election, we heard back again from the two gentlemen who ran for the Presidency.
President Obama in his press conference praised Gov. Mitt Romney and expressed how he looks forward to talking with him and hear how he may be able to help the country with his ideas in the next four years.
“There may be ideas that he has with respect to jobs and growth that can help middle-class families that I want to hear….I’m not either pre-judging what he’s interested in doing, nor am I suggesting I’ve got some specific assignment. But what I want to do is to is to get ideas from him and see if there are some ways that we can potentially work together,” President Obama said.
It seems to be a good idea to see the two men really work together, because after all, both ran for office because of their deep love for the country and their genuine desire to help the American people.
Romney’s gracious concession speech earned him a lot of respect and admiration even from among those who did not vote for him, especially when he said:
“The nation, as you know, is at a critical point. At a time like this, we can’t risk partisan bickering and political posturing. Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people’s work…And we look to Democrats and Republicans in government at all levels to put the people before the politics….I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader. And so Ann and I join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation…”
But what Mitt Romney said on Wednesday to his campaign donors seem to echo a different tone, and the audio of what he said was obtained by ABC news.
Gov. Romney reportedly said that President Obama’s campaign “focused on giving targeted groups a big gift — so he made a big effort on small things. Those small things, by the way, add up to trillions of dollars.”
As LA Times reported, “Romney argued that Obama had been ‘very generous’ to blacks, Hispanics and young voters. He cited as motivating factors to young voters the administration’s plan for partial forgiveness of college loan interest and the extension of health coverage for students on their parents’ insurance plans well into their 20s.”
“Free contraception coverage under Obama’s healthcare plan, he added, gave an extra incentive to college-age women, to back the president.”
“Romney argued that Obama’s healthcare plan’s promise of coverage ‘in perpetuity’ was ‘highly motivational’ to those voters making $25,000 to $35,000 who might not have been covered, as well as to African American and Hispanic voters.”
“Pivoting to immigration, Romney said the Obama campaign’s efforts to paint him as ‘anti-immigrant’ had been effective and that the administration’s promise to offer what he called ‘amnesty’ to the children of illegal immigrants had helped turn out Hispanic voters in record numbers.”
While some Romney supporters (even among our kababayans) may openly or silently agree with Romney on this, after a painful and what he described as an “unexpected” loss, not everyone in his party is on board with his post-mortem approach.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who was speaking at the Republican Governors Association confab in Las Vegas, was reported by ABC News to have dismissed Romney’s explanation. Romney said, “I don’t think that represents where we are as a party and where we’re going as a party…If we’re going to continue to be a competitive party and win elections on the national stage and continue to fight for our conservative principles, we need two messages to get out loudly and clearly: One, we are fighting for 100 percent of the votes, and secondly, our policies benefit every American who wants to pursue the American dream.”
Romney’s own campaign spokesperson said: “I don’t think the Obama campaign gets enough credit for actually changing the electorate…I think their turnout model is extraordinary. They did very well, and they made sure they had the exact model of the electorate that they needed to win.”
Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour called for a “brutally honest assessment of what we did,” and recommended “a very serious proctology exam” for the Republican Party.
“We need to figure out what we did right and what we did wrong, how we can improve our tone, our message, our technology, our turnout – all the things that are required to win elections,” Virginia Gov. McDonnell said.
I am giving Governor Romney the benefit of the doubt that his tone, as he was speaking to his campaign donors about this “gift” of Obama to his voters, was that of a CEO reporting to and being accountable to his investors.
But like many Americans , I hope Gov. Romney will rise above the election post-mortem blues and lead his supporters toward healing and unity.
Regardless of who we voted for, we are all Americans and we are all in this together. The success of the Obama presidency in the next four years will be the success of America. We can only hope for real results from Washington to solve the nation’s problems — hijacked for so long, because of gridlock in politics.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
