"Why I Support Mitt Romney for President"

Vic Lundquist

In the past few weeks I have had the privilege of discussing with many people the attributes of Governor Romney’s leadership and what it could mean to Americans and our nation. Even Democrats I know well are considering the possibility of supporting Mitt Romney for President.

Recently, our friend Mike Laub decided to post online the reasons people have decided to support MR. From the discussions I have had in just a few weeks, those reasons are many and varied. My request here is this: if you have decided to support MR’s candidacy, please take a little time and articulate the reason or reasons why you made up your mind. I think this can be a powerful resource as the race heats up for the undecided voter to review why average voters feel so passionate about MR as our best choice for President. Your statement can be short; many are. Please send your statement to Mike at mike.laub@gmail.com and he will post it online. You can view the current posted statements by clicking on the embedded link in the above title.

The reasons I will strongly promote MR to be our next President came to me as a sort of process of elimination. In my professional career, I have been fortunate to have worked alongside many incredibly talented leaders and to have received extensive leadership training along the way. These experiences have made it quite easy to distinguish a true leader among those who claim to be leaders; most are not.

As I contemplated all of the possible candidates for President, including those who may form an exploratory committee later in 2007, it is my opinion that only MR is superior in all 10 of these attributes. In many cases, I concluded that some of the candidates possess none of these 10.

So for me, it was a simple exercise to eliminate those presidential aspirants that are missing these strong traits possessed by MR:

• Statesman: Of all the presidential hopefuls, none stands out as a true statesman except MR; the rest are true politicians in every way. The dictionary defines 'Statesman' as, "a person who exhibits great wisdom and ability in directing the affairs of a government or in dealing with important public issues." Contrast with "Politician": "a seeker or holder of public office, who is more concerned about winning favor or retaining power than about maintaining principles." Unfortunately, this nation has had very few statesmen (and stateswomen) in recent generations. Mitt Romney is a true statesman.

• Master Strategist: MR's consistent, extensive, and successful business experience is not achieved by fortunate tactical decisions. His ability to envision a unique strategy and then to execute against that strategy is legend. We do not need, nor can we risk electing a dreaming politician with a vision of the future. Very few true leaders are also talented strategists, but MR is one. Additionally, he is patient. MR has the ability and nerve to patiently execute against a winning strategy when popular support dissipates.

• Considers Opposing Views: Though I do not know MR, I have heard directly from those who do that it is critical to him that every key decision be carefully contrasted against potential viable options, no matter how unattractive those may be to MR's closest advisers. That he will seek out the strongest opponent to a favored choice in order to receive direct input before decisively taking action. And that he is gifted with being capable of doing so quickly; never with "analysis paralysis." This trait alone places him above all other candidates by a wide margin.

• Decisive: MR's extensive experience in all aspects of business and commerce has conditioned him to be decisive. Those politicians seeking power, by comparison are "masters of positioning." MR will assume the mantle of President with disciplined and conditioned decisiveness beyond that of any recent leaders of this nation -- rather than approaching a decision as the politician does by always considering choices based on pure political outcomes or how the next election will impact him.

• A Leader: Today's world of politics has unfortunately cheapened the meaning of leadership. There are very few true leaders in America. MR is a true leader in that he has proven time and again that in very short order he can inspire and motivate large numbers of other leaders and followers to meaningful action. The politicians in the herd today range in management style from autocratic, authoritarian (never a true leader) to people-pleasers to shrewd chameleons; most do not know how to masterfully lead others to exceed their highest goals and expectations. MR does.

• Admits Failure: A true leader not only can quickly admit failure, doing so allows him to chart the new course of action while others would be still trying to cover the error. MR's business acumen has ingrained in him a keen understanding of the tremendous value of and need to alter direction to attain the desired goal. In many ways a leader is incapable of seeing and capturing opportunities if he is not able to admit that a mistake was made. The President of the United States is faced every day with many changing landscapes and therefore must be keenly able to adapt to change. He must be able to first recognize error and then immediately take corrective action. No person in the herd today matches MR's ability in this regard.

• Values and Principles vs. Platitudes: When MR speaks of any principle that he considers important, it rings true to his core. He need not emphasize any of the values or principles that are paramount in his life; his merely mentioning them is immediately understood by any American that they are simply part of his DNA -- they are core. Rather, the ambitious politicians opposing MR rely constantly upon platitudes, spoken as a 'value' or 'principle', that more often ring hollow to Americans intuitively.

• Humble Strength: Humility in the world of executive leadership is often incorrectly perceived as weakness. People do not view MR as weak. No person would ever fault him as being weak, yet as a proven leader of great strength, his humility in crediting others is one of his finest leadership attributes. President Reagan possessed this trait and it was never considered false modesty. MR also has that natural self deprecating nature that so many loved in Dutch. Very few in the herd today possess this attribute; in fact, many are arrogant and insulated.

• Capacity: MR has enormous capacity as a leader. This is rare. MR's intelligence and ability to quickly grasp complex situations expands his capacity well beyond the leadership capacity of even the best leaders in the current aspirants to be President. Has there ever been a more important time in the history of America when we needed a true statesman with enormous capacity and gifted leadership? We simply cannot afford to take any risks with unproven "good leaders” of average capacity or even above average leadership.

• Results Oriented: Checking MR's many and varied business accomplishments reveals that he is all about results, if he is nothing else. The stellar annual returns of Bain Capital under MR's leadership are nothing short of incredible. His ability to execute upon a strategic plan and to consistently deliver incredible returns year in and year out is truly incredible. No other aspiring presidential hopeful even holds a candle to MR's proven record in this regard.

I could list many more character traits that MR possesses like work ethic, determination, persistence, etc., but these traits above represent those that set Mitt Romney apart from all those aspiring to be President. Each and every one of them. These above are core to the man, Mitt Romney.

Victor Lundquist