In his article “The Romney Economy” for New York magazine, Benjamin Wallace-Wells offers quotes from Mitt Romney’s former Bain Capital colleagues that I found disturbing. “Mitt was always worried that things weren’t going to work out — he never took big risks. … I think Mitt has a tremendous amount of insecurity and fear of failure,” says one. “I never viewed Mitt as very decisive,” says another.
To be an effective commander in chief, you have to take risks, conquer your fear of failure, and be decisive. If Mitt were president now, I think bin Laden, Quadaffi, and al-Awlaki might well be alive, as well as many other terrorists whom President Obama has killed. My gut feeling about Mitt is that he lacks guts.
The article reinforces my sense that Mitt wouldn’t be any great shakes when it comes to the economy either, unless you’re part of his 1%. Mitt took over American Pad and Paper (Am Pad), a company that ended up going bankrupt. Maybe the company couldn’t have been saved. But what troubles me is that Mitt and his investors ruthlessly plundered over $100 million from Am Pad as it lay dying.
Capitalism is about creation and destruction. Steve Jobs created the iPad, Mitt Romney destroyed Am Pad. We need leaders like Jobs, not Mitt.
I wouldn’t want Romney to pick up the phone at any time, day or night. He probably wouldn’t anyway. He would avoid decision making unless he was making the phone call. And his call would be to someone asking, what company can we plunder today?