STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Mitt Romney Returns to Roy Rogers

Once Again MR Has To Be Taken Care of by the Marriots!

After a grueling ten years of campaigning for the Presidency of the United States -Mitt Romney, a decent, over ambitious,  over achiever returns to the very bosom of his nascent financial and political career—Bill Marriott—the formidable Mormon Business Executive. 

  What makes this denouement of a man so eager to become POTUS is the simple fact that Mitt never really left his immediate environs despite his efforts to portray a different narrative.

  What do I mean? 

First of all this blog is not intended to denigrate anyone, let alone, Mitt who valiantly, but foolishly took on the long-term pursuit of trying to become POTUS. 

 As many of you know from my blogs I was against his candidacy from the very beginning.  Not because in his heart or in his ‘real self’,  M.R. was not a good person; but, the basic reason was that he, unlike Obama,  did not really know who he was.  And if you don’t really know anything about your psychological dynamics than you really don’t have a “prayer” to become anything more than what you are not.

  The dictum, ‘know thyself’ was never more true than for Mitt Romney and for other future Republican candidates. 
  As a political psychiatrist who worked for five US Presidents and helped two candidates to get into the White House, the one factor that made all of these candidates capable of really winning the Presidency was not their wishful thinking or their narcissism –which is necessary for any grand achievement—but the most important factor was that they knew their own limits.

  I can't tell you how important a factor that was.  Because if one does not know what one's limits are or were then one can’t surround oneself with the people who may complement ones own deficiencies. 

  For example, Bush Sr was extremely uncomfortable acting like a ‘politician’ and ‘glad handing’.   He was born of the New England establishment where his mother correctly informed him not to tout ones one virtues.  So he had surrounded himself with professionals who were not ideologues but “pragmatists”.   This division between pragmatists and ideologues has plagued the Republican Party since Nixon. 

But Sr brought into his inner circle professionals who, in my humble opinion were very competent—James Baker, quiet, intense, shrewd and a lawyer who thought strategically and implemented efficiently and without any excuses.

  In contrast,  Mitt brought into his entourage the ‘dregs’ of the Republican Party---Karl Rove – a complete unmitigated intellectual and political self-absorbed bum.  And then Mitt surrounded himself with discredited neocons and selected a Vice President with little gravitas and a propensity for lying and self-aggrandizement.

Without belaboring the point,  Mitt was in no way a real candidate with any real bona fide credentials in business and in politics. 

  He was and is a rich, spoiled Mormon who could learn a lot from the Marriott family who in contrast,  built an empire from the ground up without resorting to ‘blood money’ or ‘stripping out companies’ and then extracting ‘value’. 

  How do I know? 

  For better or worse,  I lived around the vicinity of Bill Marriott in the Washington DC area.  But more importantly,  I watched as his father and family literally built stone by stone an empire that started with root beer and sandwiches delivered to National Airport and to the planes that took off from there. 

  Then I watched as they developed a franchise of fast food outlets called "Hot Shoppes" in which they cornered many valuable pieces of real estate around the Washington DC area. 

Next they went into creating one of the first hamburger franchises that competed effectively with McDonald’s called "Roy Rogers".   It’s there where from time to time,  I would see Bill and his family just eating their ‘Big Burgers’ and salad plate.  It was there that I was first aware of the modesty and amiability that the family projected.   They were one of the first business families to integrate during the period of segregation and allow blacks to work in major positions in their franchises. 

  So why I do laud their accomplishments?
  Because the Marriots are the example of Mormons who unlike M.R. did not have to excuse or apologize for their beliefs –both in business and in religion.  If you wanted to stay at one of the many Marriott Hotels around the world,  you had a chance to read the Mormon Bible.  It was always placed in the night stand next to the TV.
But you also had a chance not to read it.

  And so Mitt, comes back to his real roots--- the successful Mormon family that broke all the barriers of business and religion without once having to lie,  distort or contort the truth.

  They were proud to create the Roy Rogers Franchise and they were equally proud to change it when it no longer was financially viable as a business. 

As a psychiatrist,  I am pleased that M.R. can return to a comfortable environment in which he can personally reconstitute himself emotionally and spiritually. 

  But the more important point of my blog is that as MR has returned to Roy Rogers for solace as the Republican Party has completely transmuted itself into a stuffed ‘Trigger’ –Roy Roger’s horse.

The Republican Party as it is presently constituted can and will not win anything other than  another rendition of the movie "White Man Can’t Jump". 

  The future of the party lies not with an ersatz latino, or a new immigration policy but with a candidate that has served our country overseas in many incarnations, and has built businesses that created value and jobs.  And that person also has had experience as a Governor of a State.  He speaks softly but carries a Big Stick.  He has to be bright both domestically and internationally. 

  That candidate has to be so formidable that the Democratic Party had been smart enough to neutralize his candidacy from the very beginning.  Of course, as many of you know now,  I am speaking of Ambassador John Huntsman.
  I supported him from the very beginning as did President Obama.  So both of us knew something that the Republican Party clearly did not pick up. 

Simply that the only threat to President Obama --- the child/man born and bred of the CIA [mother, maternal grandmother and maternal grandfather] and tutored in the wily,  brutal ways of Mayor Daley’s ruthless Chicago politics—that John Huntsman born of a true business genius –his father—CEO of Huntsman Industries---was the REAL THREAT to OBAMA. 

  Now it’s time for the Republicans to go through their list of potential candidates and really ask themselves ‘can we afford to lose another election’? 

  Otherwise,  I can assure them as of today that if they fail once again, there is no doubt in my mind that another Democrat will enter the WH for another eight years.  And that means America will have only one viable political party. 

  Think again—Koch Brothers--- we are borne of MIT analytical approaches and not just knee jerk reactions.  Think again—Roger Ailes—don’t nod your head so easily when the candidates come to seek your blessings—you can afford to be what I knew you to be –shrewd, tough, analytical and extremely pragmatic.

  So the good doctor sends out his yearly warning to a party he once belonged to and was proud of but which has entered the moribund period of dying.

  Don’t let another candidate deceive himself and others into thinking that they can win because they have the desire to run and kow-tow.

  It’s time to become PRAGMATIC not IDEOLOGICAL. 

  Let’s not become Roy Roger’s “Trigger”—stuffed and dead.