Boston Globe’s New Standard for Current Office-Holding Presidential Aspirants: Quit If You’re Even Thinking About It
(Cross-posted under a different title at Newbusters with the front-page items [woo-hoo!])
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One of two things must be happening at The Boston Globe:
- It must really be gnawing at the editorial writers at The Globe that the GOP has controlled the governor’s mansion in Massachusetts, nearly the bluest of all blue states, for over a decade, and they just couldn’t take it any more.
- The Editorial Board has raised the standards of conduct for presidential aspirants to dizzying heights.
How else to explain The Globe’s December 15 editorial (HT to James Taranto of Best of the Web) demanding that current Governor Mitt Romney, who recently announced that he will not run for reelection in 2006, resign immediately?:
OUR NEW YEAR’S wish: a governor who wouldn’t rather be elsewhere.
By thumbing his nose at Massachusetts after less than three-quarters of one term as its chief executive, Mitt Romney, yesterday surrendered his clout and squandered his legitimacy. If, as it appears, his heart and mind are no longer in Massachusetts, he should resign.
Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey is inexperienced. But the state would be far better off in the hands of someone focused on state problems, rather than someone touring the country ridiculing the people he was elected to serve.
Keep in mind that Mr. Romney has not declared that he will run for president, has not even formed an exploratory committee, and that it is 2 years before the Iowa caucuses and the early primaries. The Globe’s 2005 standards for continuing in the Governor’s Mansion now include a total lack of presidential ambitions.
This has to a new standard at The Globe, as they failed to demand the resignations of at least these past governors:
- Democrat Michael Dukakis, who stayed on as Massachusetts governor during and after his unsuccessful 1984 presidential campaign.
- Democrat Bill Clinton, who stayed on as Arkansas Governor during his successful 1992 presidential run.
- Then-Texas GOP Governor George W. Bush, who stayed in office until he won in 2000.
But why stop at governor? By the new Globe standard, surely a United States Senator or Congressperson can’t focus on his or her job if presidential ambition has reared its ugly head.
To be consistent, The Globe in the past would have demanded the resignations of at least the following during the past two presidential election cycles:
- 2004 Presidential candidate John Kerry.
- 2004 Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards.
- 2004 Democrat aspirants Bob Graham, Joe Lieberman, Dennis Kucinich, and Richard Gephardt.
- 2000 GOP candidate John McCain.
Readers can certainly provide many more examples from previous campaigns.
And of course, if we go back far enough, Massachusetts favorite son and then-Senator John F. Kennedy would have been required by 2005 Globe standards to resign before he ran and won in 1960.
Now that The Globe has raised the bar, I am looking forward to its future editorial demands on 2008 presidential aspirants:
- The Globe will of course demand that Hillary Clinton not run for reelection as senator from New York unless she renounces any presidential ambitions. Failing that, they will surely demand that she resign as soon as she forms an exploratory committee.
- The Globe will require the resignation of Senator John McCain, and any other senator or congressperson from either side of the aisle, once they indicate that they are setting their sights on, or even a furtive glance at, The White House.
I’ll be watching The Globe to ensure that they continue to insist on their new standard.
Wait. It couldn’t be that The Editorial Board is merely taking gratuitous shots at Mitt Romney, could it?
For the past six months, Romney has been taking potshots at Massachusetts in order to boost his rapport with early primary states. When the same sex marriage issue started to heat up in the state, he let his position be known via an op-ed article…in the New York Times. Clearly Governor Romney has been disinterested in his job as chief executive of the state.
Comment by Kevin Irwin — December 17, 2005 @ 12:27 am
#1 - the editorial claims that the announcement is what caused his clout to be surrendered. I realize they made your case later. But The Globe would not have opportunistically called for his resignation had Romney not announced he’s not running again.
The question of dedication to his job in the remaining period is a valid one, esp given that there will be 2 years until the Prez election when he leaves. That said, I don’t recall the Globe editorial that criticized Kerry for being virtually AWOL (oops-awkward word) from the Senate during 2004.
Comment by TBlumer — December 17, 2005 @ 12:44 am
Kerry has been dedicated to Massachusetts as a Senator for the past 20 years. He doesn’t flutter off to South Carolina to insult us. Kerry sought the presidency and lost, but after losing, he still felt that his job was important to return to. The question I am posing has nothing to do with Romney’s lame duck year. He has been disinterested since he started in 2003. This was an issue during the campaign in 2002. He was accused of seeking the governorship as a stepping stone to increase his national profile.
Comment by Kevin Irwin — December 17, 2005 @ 2:20 pm
So I think you’re implicitly acknowledging that The Globe shouldn’t have used Romney’s announcement that he won’t run again as the trigger for a complaint about what is apparently seen as his uninvolvement.
Again, that could be a valid issue. I’ll only tell you that viewed from OH, Romney’s performance, even if sleepwalking or distracted, looks like a solid B, while Bob Taft, who hasn’t been accused of apathy, is an F+, only because he’s breathing.
Your taxes have stayed under control, and they used to be the worst (now you’re in the 30s in tax burden, while OH is about 5th). We could use sleepwalking like that.
Seriously, if there is so much concern about it, why not a recall?
Comment by TBlumer — December 17, 2005 @ 4:12 pm
Tom, you and I both must be missing a lot, because I don’t remember the Globe demanding the resignations of John Kerry, John Edwards, or Hillary Clinton either. This is a classic case of looking to complain about anything. If Romney ran for President after getting re-elected, they’d have complainted he’s ignoring the state. But he didn’t, so they complain about that anyways.
John Kerry was a US Senator the entire time he campaigned for President. The Globe had no problem with that. Romney will be out of office when the campaign for President gets going in full, yet now that’s not good enough for the Globe. Hypocrites.
Comment by CincyJeff — December 18, 2005 @ 1:02 am
#5 CJ - Somebody at the Newsbusters blogpost of this items pointed out that the Globe has lost 8% of its circulation in about a year. Crap like this explains it. Even a lot of hardcore Dems have to be embarrassed by this.
Comment by TBlumer — December 18, 2005 @ 1:23 am
CJ, read my two comments.
Tom, you aren’t looking at the drop in circulation systemically. There are two competing newspapers in the Boston area that are given away for free at commuter bus and subway stops.
Comment by Kevin Irwin — December 18, 2005 @ 9:48 am