Mitt Romney is wrong about the president and the presidency

A president is not a king or the country’s dad, though heaven knows it sometimes feels that way. The “public character” of a nation is greater than one man – or at least it had better be.

Romney is auditioning to be the conscience of the Republican Party. It’s a role he is unfit to perform after two failed presidential bids – the first in 2008, when he foundered in the GOP presidential primaries against John McCain, and again in 2012 when he was trounced by Barack Obama.

The appeals to decency ring hollow from a politician who made his fortune dismantling companies and putting Americans out of work, and who held 47 percent of the electorate in contempt.