Mitt Romney the Loser

There’s a huge amount of vitriol, on various alt-right and/or Trumpist sites, against Mitt Romney.  They hate him.  (Of course, in fairness, some of them appear to hate just about everybody.  They seem to have perpetually high blood pressure.)

One of the charges against him is that he’s a pathetic loser.

I get something of a bleak kick out of this claim, because it seems to me that, in order to credibly level such an accusation, the accuser would have to have a resume that’s more impressive than Mr. Romney’s — which, in the overwhelming majority of cases, seems quite improbable .

After all, Mitt Romney has had a stable marriage for decades to an impressive woman.  He has five impressive sons, as well as a Harvard law degree and a Harvard MBA.  He speaks both English and French, founded and led a legendary financial firm, made many millions in business, served as a bishop and a stake president, led and saved the 2002 Winter Olympics, served as governor of Massachusetts, was nominated for the presidency of the United States by one of America’s two major political parties, and came reasonably close to occupying the White House.  Rather few of the anonymous folks who hurl insults at him on the internet, I suspect, have resumés that are more impressive.

Of course, he did lose the 2012 presidential race to Barack Obama.  And Mr. Donald J. Trump won the presidential race in 2016.  That makes Mr. Trump a winner, obviously, and, in the strict sense of the word, it makes Governor Romney a loser.

But the difference needs to be kept in perspective.

Mr. Trump, after all, lost the national popular vote by nearly three million.  Against Hillary Clinton, of all people — one of the least popular major-party presidential candidates in American history.  And, whereas Mr. Trump received 45.98% of that popular vote, Governor Romney received 47.2%.

Which is, I’ll bet, considerably more than any of his anonymous online mockers have ever received.

Posted from Richmond, Virginia