But Who Is He?

Mitt Romney has been around a long time as a Mormon, a businessman and a political figure. Yet, no one seems to really know him. Friends and family object to most of the characterizations with the statement: "But I don't think that's who he is." So who is he?

Gov. Mitt Romney is first and foremost a very wealthy private equity financier and that, sadly, explains everything. In particular, it explains the almost total lack of a vision.

You could argue that Mitt Romney is first of all a Mormon. Now, Romney does not deny his Mormonism but neither does he broadcast it. If he does not go to Mormonism to explain himself and his policies, we can assume that his faith is not going to be central to his governance. Still, some people hesitate.

I know as little as the average American about Mormonism. I assume, as most Americans do, that Mormons are American and moral enough to babysit our kids, chair the local school board and even be president. And that is good enough for me. If we really want to know Romney, we have to look at the persona he does broadcast, which is that of a successful businessman. Here's where it gets problematical.

The problem is not wealth itself. Americans do not resent great wealth, even though they are quite willing to tax it. Many people we admire acquired large fortunes building something, as did Bill Gates with Microsoft, Mark Zuckerman with Facebook, Henry Ford with the Ford Motor Company, John D. Rockefeller with Standard Oil. More power to 'em.

Romney's problem is that, unlike normal businesses, private equity firms are not required to have a vision, just to make money. It's the vision thing that financiers and those with inherited money, like the Bush family, do not understand. These firms just want money and that want can never be satisfied. Aristotle condemned the usurer because money accumulation has no natural limit.

Private equity firms are not really made up of businesspeople. They don't produce a product or build anything. The executive vice president of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts said that Romney was not close to their organization and that he wasn't well known in the state's business community. As a private equity financier he did not have any common vision that he could share with colleagues or competitors.

That brings us to politics and the presidency. Romney has claimed that if elected: "I will not need briefings on how the economy works. I know how it works. I've been there." Putting even the best gloss on things, running a large firm does not teach you how politics and government work and his experience as governor of Massachusetts shows that. He did not "know how it works" and things did not go quite the way he likes to describe them. His political failures were a direct result of the fact he did not know he lacked a vision. He still doesn't know it.

As a technocrat, Romney could see what needed to be done. But without a vision, he could not  prioritize a cohesive whole, inspire a team or organize an effort to make it work. When he became governor, he tried to reorganize the state's executive branch, restructure the state universities, close or merge a number of courts and abolish the turnpike authority. Trying to do too much is the fault of neophytes and Romney accomplished little of that agenda.

Without a vision he could not form political alliances or reach compromises. And, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a conservative group, he never followed up in a meaningful way. He also failed in education reform, the luring of new businesses and the creation of jobs but blamed it on the bursting of the dot.com bubble. Overall, according to the New York Times, "there was never a full blown or focused program in the sense of saying, 'Here's our vision.'"

Gov. Romney did show leadership on healthcare, climate change and embryonic stem cell research. He was in fact leading the nine state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative with its market wide cap and trade program. If he had a vision, things that were really him, he would not have rejected all of these signature issues when he decided it was time to run for president.

Mitt Romney was formed foremost by his work in private equity where any kind of a vision is superfluous. When you don't have a vision, you don't understand why people accuse you of flip-flopping or why it makes any difference when you do flip-flop. You don't understand that if you do not have a vision, there is nothing worth knowing about you.

Finance can get by on a plan. Politics needs a vision.