The Presidential Election and the Nostalgia of '48

My head tells me that Mitt Romney is going to be elected President in 2012. The results of the Iowa caucuses have done nothing to dispel this notion. Romney is moderate, he keeps to his own wife (however contrary to Nature such comportment may be), and he gives the impression of being able to handle the economy. Further, the Mormon factor, like many prejudices that get transformed with time and exposure, appears not as consequential as it seemed in 2008.

My heart goes back to the election of 1948 when, like many other Harvard undergraduates, we stayed up all night in our rooms in the Houses (Harvard for dorms), and when dawn came—divine surprise!—Harry Truman was elected President. Truman, the bland underdog from the Middle West, came out swinging in the election campaign, fustigating the "do-nothing" Republican Congress and promising to "give 'em hell!" We see certain parallels today in what was the abortive—and absurd—attempt on the part of largely Tea Party Republicans in the House to deny the extension of tax cuts to 160 million Americans.

On the Republican side, though there are certain similarities in persona between Romney and "the man on the wedding cake" of 1948, Romney is less waxy than was his unfortunate co-Republican, Thomas E. Dewey.

While much of the hate-filled opposition to Barack Obama represents a repressed racism, the President has not risen to the bait. He appears preternaturally calm and is unresponsive to the barbs that are being constantly thrown at him. He remains the very model of an African-American President. That may not, however, be sufficient to get re-elected in 2012.   

Statements and views expressed in this op-ed are solely those of the author and do not imply endorsement by Harvard University, Harvard Kennedy School, or the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.