September 6, 2007
George Romney’s Interview II Posted by Joshua Zeitz at 12:00 PM EST Thanks to Alexander Burns for pulling up a link to the video clip of George Romney’s famous “brainwashing” remark. I agree entirely with Mr. Burns, who writes that “it seems pretty obvious that [Romney] wasn’t using the word ‘brainwashing’ in any literal sense [but] that didn’t stop the press and the public from pulling the man’s campaign apart at the seams.” I’m sure Romney had a miserable time watching Richard Nixon, his onetime rival for the GOP presidential nomination, obfuscate his way around the Vietnam issue altogether throughout the better part of 1968. Though he had told a New Hampshire audience, “Yes, I have a plan to end the war,” and though he promised that he would “end the war and win the peace in the Pacific,” Nixon stubbornly refused to reveal even the scantest details of his “plan,” which, to his chagrin, reporters took to calling a “secret plan.” “I don’t want to pull the rug out from under our negotiations in Paris” by giving away too much detail, he explained. Unlike the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Nixon could afford to be vague. He was not a member of the current government, and he stood for change ipso facto. Perhaps George Romney might have done well to follow Nixon’s lead and take no position at all. Or, like a certain actor-turned-politician (no, not the one you’re probably thinking of), he could simply have delayed his entry into the race for several months, ducked debates, and confined his appearances to late-night variety shows. Then, he wouldn’t have had to talk about Iraq—sorry, I meant to say, Vietnam—at all.
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