Southern Exposure

I have a huge soft spot in my heart for the South and for Southerners. When we moved to Alabama from Utah to start my medical residency, people would ask how I was “dealing with the big change.” To be honest, other than the obvious differences in climate and geography, it never felt like that big of a change to me.

The reason for that is that I found there to be a very comfortable similarity between your typical Utahan and your typical Southerner. Both have conservative values, family values, religious values. There’s a priority and value placed on what Southerners might call gentility or manners, and what Utahans might simply call “niceness” but at its base it’s simply a high value placed on treating others well.

That said (and this is not totally unique to the South at all), there can be a bit if insularity, or maybe it’s just Southern pride that likes being a bit unique and different from the rest of the country. Even that can be quite attractive, and I only mention it because I am pondering the meaning of the recent “win” in Louisiana by John McCain (who had made no effort there), as well as the meaning of a poll that came out today indicating John McCain has a 15 point lead on Romney in Alabama, which kind of baffles me.

I think the “natural” Southern candidates (being from the South) are Thompson (who has now dropped out) and Huckabee (who is fading), but it is apparent those two will not get the nomination.

Then you have a Westerner in McCain and a Yankee (and a Mormon Yankee at that!) in Romney. McCain has longtime name recognition, so there’s that. And to a large degree McCain has become the “establishment candidate” (at least with the party structure and the mainstream media though not with conservative talk radio), and maybe that dubbing by the media as the “frontrunner” is what Southerners have latched on to in terms of McCain. Or it could be his military background and respect for this. Or perhaps it is the “Mormon thing” with evangelicals in the South, though I hope that’s not the case.

Maybe Florida will change the dynamics of the race in the South if Romney wins there. I hope so. But I also hope Alabamians and other Southerners will take a close look at Mitt now and recognize that while he may have a Yankee businessman manner, I think they’ll find his values match theirs very closely.

For one thing, he is conservative to the core. This is true on pro-life issues, true on the defense of marriage, true on lower taxes and limited government policies, true on strong national defense. His actions have been amazingly consistent with these in his time as governor of Massachusetts. And his personal and family life reflect his values as well (a rarity, it seems, in politics).

For another, he’s simply very smart, and a very effective leader. He’s strong in ways Southerners would appreciate. It’s one thing to have a leader who shares your values; it’s another to have one who can make it happen. Mitt can make it happen. (Hey, there’s a slogan: “Mitt Happens!” – Nah…) He’s done it in business, at the 2002 Olympic Games, and in the state of Massachusetts.

So here’s my plea to my Southern friends: please take a good, honest look at Mitt Romney. Your support now could make all the difference not only for Romney, but for the Republican Party come November, and the nation a year from now at inauguration.

If you have a moment, check out these articles about Romney in Southern newspapers in the past couple of days: Articles from Montgomery, Alabama; Sarasota, Florida; East Manatee, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia (the Atlanta Journal-Constitution just endorsed Governor Romney today).

One last thing. I will go over this more in a near-future post, but there have been a couple of nice blog posts at NY for Mitt in the past day or two; here are the links to parts 1 and 2:

http://nyformitt.blogspot.com/2008/01/consider-mitt-part-1.html

http://nyformitt.blogspot.com/2008/01/consider-romney-part-2.html