In case you haven’t heard, former governor of Mass. and 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited Mississippi State University. Students gathered in Lee Hall’s Bettersworth Auditorium to hear Romney deliver a speech sponsored by the Student Association as part of the university’s Global Lecture series. At the start of his speech, Romney seemed to avoid talk of political ideas, primarily speaking to students as a typical keynote speaker would — sharing wisdom from personal life experiences. Halfway through his address, though, there was a slight shift in tone. While still witty and articulate, Romney’s advice began to take a more political shape. No longer talking about the joys of his previous campaign, he started outlining his ideas for model policies, both domestic and abroad. Particularly, he began to critique previous Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her diplomatic management of Russia, which made national news. He continued by pointing out failures of the current administration, mentioning the growth of ISIS, the weakened relations with Israel and, very briefly, Obamacare.
This shift in the speech almost resembled a campaign speech and undoubtedly had Romney fans in the audience ready for an announcement of his candidacy. That is, until two days later when Romney said in a conference call he will be stepping aside to give other Republican hopefuls the chance to run. Regardless, Romney’s speech gave insight into possible campaign strategies of Republicans over the next two years. One of the key facets was the return of compassionate conservatism. While the two words were not directly spoken together, Romney emphasized the need to help poor and middle class as well as the need for the Republicans to make clear their belief that their policies support these views. In the Q&A portion of the lecture, when asked about how he would run differently, he said explicitly Republicans must draw the connection between their support for small businesses and a healthy economy and how that support will benefit the average American. He pointed out that over the past five years, income inequality has grown greatly under the Obama administration mostly because of the lack of opportunity and the less-than-adequate results of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” He outlined a plan to help prevent and combat generational poverty citing a study which found that couples who had a baby before getting married or those who didn’t finish high school were more likely to fall into poverty. Addressing these issues while also keeping (and perhaps being more frugal and deliberate with) most of the current social safety nets would help solve both the generational and temporary poverty problem, he claimed. This, combined with his statement that the rich are already fine “regardless of who is President,” is the change in tone that seems to herald the return of compassionate conservatism. Combining the Republican economic and logical genius with the heart many perceived he lacked, Romney’s words last week unarguably carried the precise articulation the GOP needs to win the upcoming election. But with him out of the race, they will have to rely on some other candidate to adopt it.
