Dean Barnett, a staff writer for The Weekly Standard, publishes a brief, insightful column in the NY Times today on why he supports Mitt Romney, and what has gone wrong in his campaign. I feel duty-bound to post it, given what I’ve said about Romney in the past. I hope I was wrong. Excerpt:
Voters perceived the cynicism of a campaign that tried to exploit wedge issues rather than focus on the issues that in truth most interested the candidate. They sensed phoniness. As a consequence, many have grown to feel that Mitt Romney can’t be trusted. This lack of trust is now the dominant and perhaps insurmountable obstacle that the Romney campaign faces.
I know few voters will believe this, but Mitt Romney wants to be president out of a sense of duty. He feels our government needs someone with his managerial skills. He also feels that to fight the long war facing us, we need an intellectually curious president who’s willing to learn about an unfamiliar foe and who will fight resolutely to defeat that foe.
Do read the whole thing.
(HT: JT)