National Ambitions, Local Knowledge

Former Gov. Mitt Romney announced today he's running for president. Of course, we already knew it. Long before the rest of the country, in fact.

Boston.com posted Romney's remarks from this morning. You can read them all here, but here are a few of our favorite parts:

"We have lost faith in government, not in just one party, not in just one house, but in government. We are weary of the bickering and bombast, fatigued by the posturing and self-promotion," Romney said.

Really? This guy spent the second half of his disastrous administration ripping this state in half politically (well, not half really, because he didn't do the state Republican Party a damn bit of good). He made his disdain for the Legislature -- Democrats really -- well known. He's going to talk about bickering and bombast?

But then, Michigan's favorite son really gets it going with his distaste for "posturing and self-promotion." Mitt, we watched you do nothing but grandstand and self-promote since 2001. You have some kind of nerve.

Mitt goes on later to say he values the sanctity of human life, opposes gay marriage, and thinks the will of the voters should be heard. Never quite got to that 5 percent income tax rate that the voters approved way back, did you, Mitt? He also said America feels overtaxed. After he raised fees to the tune of $900 million, what wouldn't we feel that way?

Finally, check this one out:

"We must link arms with all responsible nations to block Iran from realizing its nuclear ambition. America must never engage and negotiate with Jihadists who want to destroy us, destroy our friends, and destroy our way of life!"

First, the exclamation point comes right off the speech copy. Second, what, exactly does that mean? Doesn't much of the country roll its eyes at President Bush when Iran comes up? Don't most Americans feel like Iran could be another Iraq (even though the Iranians really are up to nuclear hijinx, it appears). While most of the national conversation is on getting out of Iraq, how beneficial is a discussion on Iran? Romney's been a little bit alone on this, and it will be interesting to see how he fleshes out his foreign policy on this matter. It seems a pretty red-meat, Bush strategy.

So, America, welcome to our Mitt. Or, really, Utah and Michigan's Mitt. Or as Mitt might like to probably say, the Olympics' Mitt. He's taken his posturing and self-promotion national, and we really couldn't be more proud. We also couldn't be more aware of who he is and what he's about. Enjoy. We sure didn't.