Mitt Romney Recordings

Born into a wealthy family in Detroit, Michigan, Willard Mitt Romney was the youngest of four children born to George, an American Motors executive and Lenore, a former actress and current homemaker, Romney.  Up until the 7th grade Romney attended the public schools.  After 7th grade he started to attend a preparatory school called Cranbrook School and at the time was only a handful of Mormons to attend that school.  Not very athletic and not an academic scholar, but was involved in pep squad, joining the cross country track team in his senior year, and helped found the Blue Key Club.  Romney worked on his father's successful 1962 campaign for Michigan governor, and then he interned in the governor's office for a while.  By his senior year at Cranebrook, Romney did improve his grades but fell short of excellence.  He also became involved in a number of senior pranks which in later years said that many of them may have gone too far.  After graduation Romney attended Stanford for a year.  He did not take part in the San Francisco counter-culture that was taking place and when a group of students staged a sit in at the administration building, Romney took part in a protest that countered the other protestors.  In the summer of 1966, Romney began a 30 month stint in France as a Mormon missionary.  There were three rules: no drinking, no smoking, and no dating had been strictly enforced.  After a while, because of only converting ten to twenty people to Mormonism, he became demoralized and later said that most of what he was trying to do was rejected.  As the Vietnam War dragged on, many French were opposed to the United State's' involvement in the war.  Romney would debate them only to be yelled at with the door slammed in his face.  Upon his return from France Mitt Romney moved to Utah where he enrolled in Brigham Young University.  Having missed the anti-Vietnam sentiments by America's youth Romney was surprised that his father, now the secretary of housing and urban development in the new Richard Nixon administration had taken part in the movement after his failed bid for the presidency in the Presidential Election of 1968.  In a newspaper article on Cabinet members' children, Romney said about Vietnam that the US involvement was misguided.  However, he did support President Nixon's expansion of the war into Cambodia resulting in the killing of four students and the wounding of nine more at Kent State University on May 4, 1970.  Romney felt that going into Cambodia was a sincere attempt at ending the war.  Romney did get his share of draft deferments while in school and in France.  By the time of the December 1969 Draft Lottery his draft number was 300.  He graduated from BYU with a 3.97 GPA earning a bachelor's degree in English.

After earning his JD-MBA, Romney went to work for the Boston Consulting Group where he became a management consultant.  He felt that this would better prepare him as a chief executive, which was the norm for many men in his position in the 1970s.  Romney found his legal and business education useful in this position.  While at BCG, Romney applied the growth-share matrix which many executives viewed Romney having a bright future.  In addition he worked with future Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, forging a lifetime friendship.  By 1977, he went to Bain and Company and by 1978 becoming a Vice President of the firm.  In fact, clients liked working with him rather than more senior consultants.

Having been mostly apolitical for most of his adult life, Mitt Romney had been a registered Independent having voted in the 1992 Democratic Presidential Primaries for Paul Tsongas.  By 1993, Romney had decided that he wanted to get into politics, following in his father's footsteps and decided to challenge Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy in 1994.  If there was a time to take on Kennedy, 1994 was the year given the unpopularity of the Democratic controlled Congress and it being the first election since the 1991 William Kennedy Smith trial.  Romney switched his Party affiliation to Republican and proving a powerful fundraiser he won the Republican Primary with 68% of the vote.  Kennedy tried every way to tie Romney's policies to those of Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush.  Romney was quick to point out that he was an Independent under Reagan and Bush.  In the end, Kennedy won re-election with 58% of the vote.  Mitt Romney went back to Bain and told his brother after his loss that he did not want to run for anything again, unless he could win.

With the 2002 Winter Olympics being held in Salt Lake City, and the organization being fiscally in trouble, Mitt Romney took over that organization to try and save it.  He was chosen for his connections with the Church of Latter Day Saints and Salt Lake City itself.  The appointment was not without its concerns from both Mormons and non-Mormons. Many felt that by Romney being in charge of the Olympics it was a sign of cronyism as well making the games feel like they were too Mormon dominated.  With his $1.4 million in salary and severance from the Olympics; Romney donated it to charity and another $1 million to the Olympics itself.  Under his leadership the Olympics' budget was reduced and fundraising was boosted.  He had alleviated corporate concerns and brought in new corporations as well.  After the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC on September 11, 2001, Romney ensured a $300 million security budget to ensure the Games' safety in a post 9/11 world.  After it was over, the Olympics ended the games with a $100 million surplus earning Mitt Romney the reputation for being a turnaround artist.  George W. Bush had praised Romney's efforts and 87%of Utahans approved of his heading the Olympics.  In addition, Harvard Business School taught a case study based on his ability to save the Olympics financially.  This experience gave him the ability to work with the federal, state, and local government, giving him the confidence to try his hand at elective office once again. 

With an unpopular acting Republican governor, the White House and the Massachusetts Republican Party viewed Mitt Romney as a logical choice to run for governor in 2002.  He was unopposed in the Primary, but the Massachusetts Democratic Party was quick to point out eligibility requirements.  The Democratic Party cited a law stated that in order to be eligible to run for governor, the candidate must have resided in Massachusetts for seven consecutive years.  They continued to cite that in 1999 and 2000; Mitt Romney filed state tax returns in Utah.  The Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission, a bipartisan ruling body ruled in favor of Romney had maintained both financial and personal ties to Massachusetts, thus making him eligible to be a candidate for governor.  Romney touted his outsider image and painting himself as a moderate by supporter a woman's right to choose.  He also used his experience with the Olympics to use the office to eliminate waste in the state's budget.  Learning from the experience of running against Ted Kennedy in 1994, Romney tried to shed his wealthy out of touch image by staging a series of blue collar jobs that the people could see him do.  These jobs included herding cows, bailing hay, unloading fishing boats, and collecting garbage.  In the end, Mitt Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts with 50 percent of the vote.

When he took office in 2003, Romney faced a state legislature that was heavily Democratic.  He refused his salary of $135,000 a year.  As far as his Cabinet, Romney picked peopled based more on their managerial abilities rather than their Party affiliation.  While as governor, Massachusetts raised fees on drivers' licenses and gun licenses.  A special gasoline retailer fee was passed as well.  Corporate tax loopholes were also closed under Romney's watch.  However, there was also heavy state budget cuts resulting in state colleges and universities to raise their fees by 63% over a four year period.  When he first became governor, Tom Sterberg of Staples came to the governor and said that supporting a statewide universal health care plan would be the best way to help the people.  But the biggest reason was the threat by the federal government to cut $385 million in funds for Medicaid payments to Massachusetts if the number of uninsured recipients of health care was not reduced.  Romney decided that the money would be best used to subsidize health care for the poor.  After some politicking and making deals with Democrats and Republicans alike, and gaining the support of what would be known as Romneycare, Massachusetts had a statewide universal health care system.  This law required that nearly all Massachusetts residents buy health insurance or risk losing their personal income tax exemptions.  This bill would also means test residents to see if they're eligible for subsidies if their employer lacked adequate insurance as well as if their income was below a threshold.  The other big controversial issue was that of same sex marriage.  The governor was against it and civil unions at first, but by 2004, with the State Supreme Court ruling, Romney instructed all town clerks to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples in Massachusetts, but only to state residents.  His views on abortion had changed by 2005 and was not in support of emergency contraception in hospitals and pharmacies.  This also changed his views on stem cell research.  It was clear that with the Presidential Election of 2008 coming, Mitt Romney wanted to be the Republican Nominee.  In December 2006, he announced that he was not running for re-election as Governor but focusing his efforts on 2008.

The Presidential Election of 2008 was different for many reasons.  First, it was the first election where the two possible front-runners in the Democratic Party were a woman; Hillary Rodham Clinton and an African-American, Barack Obama. It was also the first election since 1928 when the incumbent president; Calvin Coolidge in 1928 and George W. Bush in 2008 and the incumbent vice president ; Charles G. Dawes in 1928 and Dick Cheney in 2008 did not run for president.  That left the Republican Nomination wide open.  In February 2007, Mitt Romney officially announced his candidacy for president of the United States.  When making his announcement Romney invoked his outsider status, he mentioned his father's role in the family business of politics, and his experiences in the private, public, and voluntary sectors.  This would include how he turned the Olympics organization around during the 2002 Winter Games.  The media loved to report on Romney's physical looks of being six feet two inches tall, his square jaw, and the hair graying at the temples made him look presidential.  But the one thing that was a setback for Romney, much like Al Smith in 1928 when he lost to Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy in 1960 when he narrowly defeated Richard Nixon was his religion.  When asked about his Mormon Doctrine, he would refer to the Constitution's prohibition of religious tests to hold public office.  Article VI, Clause 3 states, "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution, but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to an Office or public Trust under the United States."  After facing tough questions about his religion, particularly by Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas, Romney pulled a Jack Kennedy and delivered what would be known as his Faith in America Speech.  In the speech he declared in his belief of his faith and like Kennedy in 1960 when confronting the Catholic issue stated that no religious doctrine will be put above the duties of president when it comes to the sovereign authority of the law.  In the end, much like Bob Dole in the Presidential Election of 1996, and like the Democrats did with Joe Biden in 2020; the Republican Party nominated the Party elder John McCain as their nominee.  Romney was considered a possible shortlist contender for Vice President along with then Democratic senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, but in the end it was Sarah Palin, the unknown governor of Alaska who got the nod.

After four years with Barack Obama as president and the rise of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party in the 2010 Midterms, Mitt Romney felt that 2012 was now his time to run and win the presidency.  In addition, he was banking on his strong second place showing in 2008 against John McCain that he was next in line for the nomination.  But despite a weak field of candidates and the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the one big hurdle that Romney would have to overcome would be that of Massachusetts Health Care Reform under his watch as governor that was very similar to the ACA.  By May 2012, Mitt Romney clinched the Nomination.  With his pick of Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan as his running-mate, the Republicans were ready to take on Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the fall campaign.  Despite polls showing a tight race between Obama and Romney it just wasn't enough as Barack Obama repeated history not seen since James Monroe in 1820 when a third consecutive incumbent president was re-elected to a second term.  Had Donald Trump been re-elected in 2020, history would have been made again with a fourth consecutive incumbent President winning re-election.

Early in the Presidential Election of 2016, not happy with Donald Trump's frontrunner status in the Republican Party for the Presidential Nomination; Mitt Romney, private citizen went before an audience declaring Donald Trump a phony.  But, by the time Trump was elected and before the inauguration, Romney was seen having meetings with the President-Elect.  "Experts in the media" speculated that Romney was angling for a Cabinet post in the new Trump administration.  No such position materialized.  So by 2018, Utah senator Orin Hatch announced his retirement and Mitt Romney was elected to replace him.  Perhaps the two big things that Mitt Romney is remembered for in his US Senate tenure is being the first Republican to vote to convict his Party's president not once but twice in two Senate Impeachment Trials.  The first impeachment being in February 2020 over the President's Quid Pro Quo and the second being in February 2021 over Donald Trump's involvement in the Insurrection of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.