I’ve read and heard all the criticisms of Romney – from Romneycare to flipflopping on abortion, gay marriage, and even fees vs taxes in Mass. It seems to be that folks need to make a couple decisions. First decision is whether to support someone who has a political record that never strays from the hard-line right-wing line of thought (as of today), or to support a whole-package candidate that can actually get elected in a general election and can actually bring to fruition some policy changes with as much of a conservative element as can be passed in our US government system (which I believe is very good despite its shortcomings/annoyances).

You can pick apart specifics of Romney’s history as Mass governor, but the fact is that Mass is a wealthy, densely populated state. Mass is different from the rest of the country. Of course there are drawbacks to the final outcome of the Mass healthcare system, but they’ve given it a try. The good thing is that if a Mass resident doesn’t like it, they can move to another state. It’s a whole lot harder (and worse) to feel as though you have to move to another country because our federal government instituted a bad policy that covers the whole country! I am fed up with people who”don’t understand” the difference between Romneycare and Obamacare. One is a state law and another is a federal law – what’s not to get?

Romney had a very solid record as a successful executive (Bain Capital – the private equity firm) turning around badly performing organizations (Bain & Co – the consulting firm, Salt Lake City Olympics, state of Mass). The guy is smart and has proven himselft deftly capable in political settings (both business and in public office) dealing with many stakeholders and many competing interests. We know the economy will be a critical issue in the coming years. Other than that, we don’t know what the issue-of-the-moment will be in two years when the next president takes office, but I would trust Mitt Romney to handle it.