KNOWLES: Mitt Romney’s Character Problem

Conveniently lost amid the endless jabber over President Trump’s character flaws are the myriad shortcomings of his predecessors and critics. No more vulgar or erratic than exhibitionist Lyndon Johnson, no less learned than haberdasher Harry Truman, no more a womanizer than Bill Clinton, JFK, LBJ, and FDR, Trump starts to seem disciplined by comparison. As Roger Kimball quotes Cardinal Newman in an excellent piece at American Greatness, a man “may be great in one aspect of his character and little-minded in another. … A good man may make a bad king; profligates have been great statesmen or magnanimous political leaders,” which brings us to the sad case of Mitt Romney.

The former Massachusetts governor, current Utah senator, and twice-failed presidential candidate published a sanctimonious op-ed in Pravda on the Potomac this week in which he bemoaned the “deep descent” of the Trump presidency. Romney took issue with Trump’s “resentment and name-calling,” his lack of “honesty and integrity,” and his overall “shortfall” in the “qualities of character.” Romney excels at seeing the speck of sawdust in his president’s eye; he fails to notice the plank in his own.