Romney Is No New York Doll

Greg Whiteley's film, Mitt debuted at Sundance in Utah Friday. The documentary is a very up-front and personal look at Romney's two failed attempts at the presidency. At the bottom of this post is a trailer that will give you a good feel for the movie, which was made by director Greg Whiteley. According to Byron York, Whiteley's film New York Doll, had impressed Romney enough for him to grant Whiteley the kind of access needed to make this kind of movie. Don't start wondering which of the two Dolls' album is Romney's favorite. The 2005 film "brilliantly chronicled a broken-down rock musician's conversion to Mormonism." It was the Mormonism part, of course, that drew Romney, not the idea of the band who wrote "Trash," "Jet Boy," "Vietnamese Baby," or "Who Are the Mystery Girls?"

Martin Longman explains why so few Americans will actually ever see Whiteley's movie about Romney. "The man told too many lies." Steve Benen documented them and by late August "it was up to 533.

It was just incredible how frequently and shamelessly Mitt Romney made outright false assertions. And I think forcing nearly half the country to defend that kind of behavior has a crippling effect on the moral character of America. It’s very similar to the way the GOP’s standards were permanently damaged the moment that they had defend Sarah Palin as an acceptable potential president. Suddenly, it was not just acceptable, but virtuous, to be ignorant about foreign affairs. Reading the papers became something only snobs do. It was okay to treat a vice-presidential debate the way you’d treat a beauty pageant.

When Mitt Romney decided to run a campaign built entirely on mendacious statements, he destroyed any vestige of truthfulness in his party. I was so happy to see him lose and was amazed that he’d managed to lie even to himself about his prospects for success. If this movie portrays him as somehow honorable, that is just one more lie. Call it the cherry on top.

Whiteley (l) and Romney ® at Sundance

That isn't the narrative that Whiteley addressed and it sure isn't the narrative that Byron York expounded on in the Washington Examiner.

For viewers who follow politics closely, especially for Republicans who desperately wanted to defeat Barack Obama, there is a revelation in Mitt that is not just unexpected but deeply disheartening. At a critical moment in the campaign-- the two weeks in October encompassing the first and second general election debates-- the Romney portrayed in Mitt struggled with a nagging pessimism and defeatism, unable to draw confidence even from a decisive initial debate victory over President Obama. Deep down inside, the Romney seen onscreen in Mitt seems almost resigned to losing to Obama in those crucial showdowns.

It didn't start well. Team Romney went into the first debate bruised and reeling from the controversy over Romney's "47 percent" remarks. Mitt includes a scene from Romney's debate preparation in which Sen. Rob Portman, playing the president, used the controversy to nail Romney in a quiet but devastating way. The "47 percent" statement was so damaging, Portman/Obama argued, not only because it was made behind closed doors-- and thus represented Romney's true feelings-- but also because it was the foundation of Romney's policy proposals. Romney didn't have a very good answer.

...The film picks up on Election Day, with Romney making a final campaign swing. Flying into Boston for the night, he looked down and saw the city's traffic at a standstill. Someone said lots of roads were closed. Why? Romney asked. "The Secret Service has everything shut down as if you're the President of the United States," he was told.

"Queen for a day," Romney said to no one in particular, almost bitterly, and certainly without a trace of a smile.

That night, at his hotel suite, Romney was pessimistic after a string of early-state losses. When he heard the race was very close in Florida, he immediately saw bad news. "If it's a squeaker in Florida-- then Ohio, there's just no way."

Ann Romney mentioned that the campaign had had hopes for Michigan and Pennsylvania-- hopes that weren't turning out. Then Romney mentioned Wisconsin. "Oh-- that's probably gone, too," he said. And it was.

As defeat settled in, Romney discussed what to say in a concession speech-- which, for all his natural pessimism, Romney had not considered ahead of time. And it was in that moment that some of Romney's passion about the race finally came out, far from the view of voters and television cameras. Stevens suggested that the losing candidate should play an almost "pastoral" role, "soothing" the American people after a long and divisive campaign.

"I don't think it is a time for soothing and everything's fine," said Romney. "I think this is a time for [saying], 'This is really serious, guys. This is really serious.'"

"To get up and soothe is not my inclination," an obviously anguished Romney continued. "I cannot believe that [Obama] is an aberration in the country. I believe we're following the same path of every other great nation, which is we're following greater government, tax rich people, promise more stuff to everybody, borrow until you go over a cliff. And I think we have a very high risk of reaching the tipping point sometime in the next five years. And the idea of saying 'it's just fine, don't worry about it'-- no, it's really not."

Given what has come before it in the film-- Romney's defeatism in the debates-- the scene leaves the impression that perhaps in his heart of hearts Romney never really believed he could win. That also seems the message of one of the last scenes of "Mitt," the day after the election, when Romney addressed staff at his Boston campaign headquarters. The old lack of confidence came out again as Romney suggested he never felt comfortable in the race. He passed on something someone at headquarters had told him: "In some ways, we kind of had to steal the Republican nomination. Our party is Southern, evangelical and populist. And you're Northern, and you're Mormon, and you're rich. And these do not match well with our party."

A candidate who did not believe he could beat the president in debate, who always felt second-best to his father, who believed the country was moving away from him, and who didn't even feel at home in his own party. The Romney campaign faced many uphill battles in the 2012 campaign. Mitt shows us that some of the most intense were in the candidate's mind.

Over the long run, history will forget Willard Romney entirely. The impact of the New York Dolls will be remembered for far longer and will always be more important.