Mitt Romney's Missed Opportunity

Over the course of four political campaigns, Mitt Romney has inhabited many personas, trying to meet the needs of the time and the race. He was a socially liberal Senate hopeful in an unsuccessful 1994 challenge to Ted Kennedy. Then he was a social conservative running against John McCain for the Republican nomination in 2008. His good fortune in 2012 was that he could run as himself: a businessman so successful even Bill Clinton has lauded his “sterling career.”

The moment calls for a leader who understands the economy, management, and the art of empirical decision-making. In that regard, Romney’s résumé looks tailor-made. His career in strategic consulting and private equity began in the 1970s during a recession that defied the best efforts of politicians and business leaders. It traced the revolution in American corporations that followed in the ’80s and ’90s, a revolution Romney and his peers helped drive, and one that made the U.S. as a nation more competitive. It offers clear lessons about how government can respond to such upheavals and how Romney might use his experience to turn things around.