Ode to Mitt Romney

Obama and his supporters got their cake yesterday, and now they get to eat it. This isn't Bush's mess anymore. The responsibility is going to fall squarely on the shoulders of our new president. One way or another he's going to have to figure out how to work with Congress, how to deal with the fiscal cliff, and how to keep Americans safe both here and abroad in a world of growing instability littered by radical terrorists. (RIP Ambassador Stevens and the other brave men who needlessly died on American soil in Libya.) As Brandon likes to quote, "Life is a crap sandwich, and every day you have to take a bite." I'm afraid today is a little more than I can swallow, but before I pick myself up and face this new era in American history (gulp), I wanted to publicly acknowledge and thank Mitt Romney for being the good, decent, hard working, brilliant, and patriotic man that he is. You did a really good thing by me and the 56, 145, 950 (and counting) Americans who voted for you yesterday. I will take your gracious counsel and try to support President Obama (and, as a Mormon, I will take the counsel from our church leadership--I would note, a far cry from the rhetoric of Obama's long time pastor who married the Obamas), but I'd be lying if I said I was excited about it. For the sake of our country and my children's futures, I hope to God I am wrong about Obama and his vision for America.

Ode to Mitt Romney . . . 

Thank you for being a rich Bain Capital executive. I know the mainstream media did a whopper of a job painting you as a bad guy because you made a lot of money in private business, but millions of us look up to you and your model of success. Millions of us understand that you really do know how to create a job and turn things around. Millions of us still believe that financial success is a good thing,  and recognize that people with money usually got it by being smart and willing to work hard. You didn't inherit your money, you earned it, and I, for one, admire that. It is a sad day in America when we demonize the rich and successful and want nothing more than to burden them with heavy taxes because (in a whiny voice) "it's not FAIR." Unfortunately, when the rich get poorer, the poor also get poorer. You understand that, but our current president (and the record breaking 46 million people on food stamps in this country) do not. Not only do the rich keep the economy afloat by hiring people, investing, and buying stuff, but the "selfish and greedy" rich people are often the biggest contributors to charities. You have certainly been evidence of that, giving almost 30% of your income to charity last year and never taking an income as the governor of Massachusetts or as the man who turned around the Olympics. You are a class act, Mitt.

Thank you for being the smart, competent, and supposedly "out of touch" guy. Again, the media hammered you for being stiff, out of touch, and unable to connect with the "real" American people, but I for one never needed or wanted a rock star president. I heard your clear message of economic strength. I saw your vast leadership experience born of turning around failed businesses, governments, and the Olympics. I acknowledge how smart and competent you really are. We don't get many chances at having a candidate who is a graduate of both Harvard business and law school; a candidate with both political as well as private sector experience. Despite Obama's dismal record of unemployment, skyrocketing debt, and puzzling foreign policy behavior (why, why, WHY has no one outside of the conservative news outlets looked seriously into the Benghazi debacle?), you never had a chance against a guy who can dunk, a guy who can sing R&B, a guy who swaggers off Air Force One, a guy who gives speeches that can change the tides of the ocean, a guy who is friends with Sarah Jessica Parker. Sadly, too many people in this country get their "news" from MTV, The View, and Jimmy Fallon, and being the celebrity obsessed culture that we are, you never stood a chance as the boring old white guy who simply knew what to do.

Thank you for trying to repeal Obama Care. As the wife of a physician, I can testify that it has already started to wreak havoc on our health care system. When was the last time anyone interviewed a doctor and asked them how they feel about Obama Care? If they did, they would know that the vast majority oppose it. Not just because it will hurt doctors in the pocketbook (which it will, of course--my husband saw a significant drop in his practice last January when people's co-pays went from $20 to $40 and even $50), but mostly because it's bad for health care. My husband is sadly resigned to what now seems to be the inevitable reality that he will have to join a large health care group and get a salary rather than try to continue practicing medicine privately. The federal mandates and regulations coming down the pike (and those that have already been instituted in recent years) are making it next to impossible for doctors to keep up with all the paperwork and bureaucratic mumbo jumbo while taking care of their patients at the same time. And as far as the great health care everyone is now going to get? This, from my husband: "The new accountable care model we're going to be moving towards is essentially a capitated system where physicians and care organizations are discouraged from doing more for their patients or using higher cost treatment modalities because they will only get paid a certain amount of money per patient regardless of how much work or care that patient requires. We've already seen this happen with HMO's where more expensive, cutting edge treatments become restricted simply because of cost. Essentially, you're asking the doctor to pay to do more work if he opts to do more expensive treatments, so it becomes a reverse conflict of interest. Instead of having the doctor interested in doing all he can to help his patient, you are incentivising the doctor to do less. It's a way of saving money, yes, but it's not really good medicine for patients and healthcare." To give another example, a recent federal mandate forces doctors to prescribe medications to 30% of their patients whether or not they need them. These types of irrelevant and dangerous mandates made by those without medical training get in the way of good medicine. But no one is consulting the doctors, and the doctors are too busy caring for their patients to take on the federal government. My husband's father made more money in the same speciality (urology) in the early 80's than my husband does today seeing the same amount of patients. Does anyone really think we will continue to attract the best and the brightest to the medical field if we continue to punish them after they've already done (in my husband's case) NINE years of expensive post-graduate training? As the father of a physician, Mitt Romney got that. Thank you for trying, Mitt, but America is now going to get what they asked for--federally mandated and controlled medicine. Congratulations!

Thank you for being a really decent man in a world of declining values. Hard as they tried, all the media could drum up on you was that you teased a classmate in high school. (Scandal!) I loved reading and hearing the stories from your personal life before you were even in the political realm. They say SO MUCH about your true character. Of course, these stories were all but hidden from most Americans, but for those of us who actually tried to get an honest picture of who you are, we recognize that the cold, uncaring, elitist narrative written about you by the mainstream media was not just false, it was downright dishonest. Again, you never had a fighting chance against the administration's media.

Thank you for your message of real hope. Half of this country shares your vision of what America was and should continue to be--a place that believes in We The People, not the federal government. Unfortunately, with the increase in our entitlement population (yes, part of that infamous 47% who would, in fact, never vote for Romney because they knew he wouldn't give them an Obama phone), that vision of America seems to be dimming. We are moving away from a people who ask what they can do for their country (thank you, Pres. Kennedy) to a people who expect the government and successful people's tax dollars to pay for their groceries and birth control. It is also difficult to make progress when there are so many single issue voters like the women who seem to think a Republican president would ban birth control and abortions (ridiculous!) as well as those who vote only for gay marriage or the color of a candidates skin (regardless of experience, policy, or track record). Our country really does seem to be making an ideological shift, and for about 50% of us, that shift is not in the direction of the America we know and love. The America 50% of us know and love praises and encourages individual success, acknowledges God and his role in this country, supports the idea of "peace through strength" rather than cutting the military by the trillions, and doesn't feel it has to apologize to other countries for either our successes or our ideas of freedom and democracy. It is very sad to so many of us that we will never have the opportunity to see what a Romney presidency could have done for our country.

Thank you, Mitt, for giving us hope. Not a hope that you would change America, but a hope that you would PRESERVE America.

Thank you, Mitt and Ann. Your vision, hard work, and sacrifice to try to get our country back on track will not soon be forgotten.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you