Sooner or later, presumptive GOP presidential nominee frontrunner Mitt Romney will have to publicly answer which Romney will show up on the issue of race and diversity if he indeed gets the GOP nomination and snatches the White House in 2012. Will it be the Romney that claimed in an interview on Meet the Press in 2007 that he got teary eyed when he heard that his Mormon church's ruling elders publicly declared that blacks would no longer be barred from the Mormon priesthood? Romney didn't directly say it but he strongly hinted that the moment stirred strong emotions in him because he never went along with his church's decade's old racial bar.
"I was anxious to see a change in my church.... My faith has always told me that and I had no question that African Americans and blacks generally would have every right and every benefit in the hereafter that anyone else had and that God is no respecter of persons."
Now contrast that with the Romney that former GOP congressman J.C. Watts, a staunch black conservative, recently ripped for having a virtually lily white campaign staff. Romney was unmoved by the knock and flatly said that he hires the best persons that he can find. He underscored that with the rhetorical emphasis "What's the charge? Is there something wrong with that?"
Nothing, nothing that is if Romney's political ambitions didn't extend any further than seeking to win a GOP seat in a GOP-friendly congressional district in the GOP's hard-core voter geographic vote base in the Heartland and the Deep South. The presidency is a far different matter. The teary-eyed Romney that chaffs at racial bigotry can't trump the Romney that glibly condones it in picking his campaign staff.
Romney's record on diversity as Massachusetts governor gives a strong hint of what his White House would look like. When it came to appointing minorities and women to judicial posts, his record was atrocious. The Massachusetts Women's Bar Association repeatedly lambasted him for his near-exclusive white male statehouse. Romney, partly in response to the public pounding and partly with an eye on a presidential run where he knew his state record on diversity would be closely scrutinized, made a slew of appointments of minorities and women to the state bench in his last year in office.
Romney's successor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, and the state's first African-American governor, wasted no time in knocking Romney for his blatant race and gender blind spot on appointments. In his inaugural address he made it clear that he would make diversity and inclusion a huge part of his administration. Romney, not surprisingly, did not attend Patrick's inaugural.
Late night comedian-talk show host Jay Leno was bothered enough by Romney's blind spot on diversity to ask him point blank in an interview during the 2008 GOP presidential primary campaign what he thought about diversity. Romney gave the GOP formula answer and said that he supported it in government and corporations. Leno wasn't satisfied and pressed him on what his administration would do to promote diversity. Romney wouldn't budge from the stock retort that discrimination is wrong. That's even less than the bare minimum response to racial bigotry that any candidate for public office is required to give.
The embarrassing litany of Romney's race-tinged gaffes that include the metaphorical reference to hanging Obama, a joke about Obama's birth certificate, using the racially offensive word "tar baby" to describe a public works project, and an animal reference in a pose with an African-American doesn't tag Romney as a racist. He apologized or pleaded ignorance in every case. But it does touch off warning bells on race.
The loudest bell is what Romney will have to do, or more particularly who he'll have to satisfy, to seal the GOP nomination. Romney will have to do a massive sell job to Christian evangelicals, ultra-conservatives and Tea Party leaders that he's really at heart one of them. To appease them, he has little wiggle room on race. The mere mention of race, let alone diversity, emblazons red flags among conservative hardliners. They relentlessly bait him as a flip-flopper and closet moderate who will dump conservative principles at the drop of a hat. There's no likelihood that Romney would pick the nettlesome Watts as his VP running mate as the influential ultra conservative blog redstaterusa.org dared him to do in 2007 when Romney was fighting hard for presidential nomination. The Watts for VP call though was done more to needle Obama than any serious interest in promoting diversity in a GOP White House.
Romney's actions, not tears about Mormon Church bigotry and protestations against discrimination, tell much about what to expect with a Romney in the White House. And that's not much.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles streamed on ktym.com podcast on blogtalkradio.com and on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson
There appears to be double standard when the left discusses race and diversity. I didn't hear many black leaders or the media, praising G.W. Bush's appointment of Condelezza Rice and Colin Powell to his cabinet. Somehow many Blacks dismissed them as not being "real" blacks. Same with Clarence Thomas to the Supreme. Many blacks blasted him as sellout or tom. Unfortunately, many black conservatives are often times viewed as confused or misinformed.
I don't know much about Mitt Romney's previous record on diversity, and I really don't care, however, what is important for any leader of any race is honesty and integrity. I want a candidate who is capable of improving the lot of All Americans. I want a leader that doesn't just make great speeches, but get things done.
THEN WHY DID YOU POST A COMMENT HERE? People like you bore me with their racism and stereotypes of African- Americans and defend the most ignorant types like Herman Cain and why should we applaud G.W. Bush for appointing Black Conservatives like Rice and Powell?
People like you always want a cookie for doing something that doesn't take much effort,Katrina is norm as how much contempt Republicans have for African- Americans to the tune of nearly 600-1000 Black Dead.
I don't agree with what Sigma said either, but I appreciate the fact that s/he was able to say it without calling someone boring, or accusing them of "wanting a cookie." That would have been juvenile.
One good thing we can take about Romney is that we will know what to expect. With Obama, we got all kinds of promises and then almost nothing came true.
If you go to http://www.whorunsgov.com/ and look at all the people Obama appointed to run the Government, you will see that he almost never appointed any brothers. Lots of Asians, Jews, Middle Eastern types and women, but very, very few blacks.
Clinton did better and he was white.. well, America’s first black president.
Anyway, whether its Obama or Romney, it really doesn’t matter any more. Black Americans will be screwed either by the perceived enemy or the friend who really is an enemy.
Jonathan