WHITLEY: Is The Fate Of The World Enough For Mitt Romney To Finally Endorse Mike Lee?

Jared Whitley on October 25, 2022

James Bond’s family motto, as we learn in 1969’s “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” is orbis non sufficit, or in English, “the world is not enough.” The phrase shows both 007’s honor and the spirit of the “keep calm and carry on” generation: no earthly temptation can compare to queen and country. It’s such a great moment it inspired a sequel of the same name 30 years later.

But apparently, Mitt Romney missed it.

Fellow Utah Sen. Mike Lee is in the fight of his political life, and Romney refuses to endorse his reelection. Polls put Lee uncomfortably close to his challenger, a former CIA agent who has been an annoyance to Republicans since a quixotic bid for president in 2016.

After vanquishing a complacent incumbent 12 years ago, Lee probably thought the only thing that might end his Senate career was the Supreme Court appointment that never happened. Utah hasn‘t elected a Democrat to the Senate since the 1970s. But if Lee loses because of Romney’s silence – and Democrats hold on to a majority in the upper chamber – the Biden administration keeps their license to kill America.

The last two years have been an unmitigated disaster, both at home and abroad. The sons of the men behind 9/11 celebrated its 20th anniversary with Biden’s surrender. Vladimir Putin’s rampage through Ukraine is thanks to progressives’ cult-like belief in a bogus climate crisis. This year the Biden administration wiped out $9 trillion of wealth in the stock market. Our current recession will flare up into a worldwide depression, should China invade Taiwan on their march to replace America as the planet’s super-power.

The world is the most precarious position it’s been in since, well, ever, and the only line of defense is America-first Republicans like Lee. Moving the dial in Utah just a couple percentage points in the last week would allow everyone to breathe easy, maybe even free up resources to help Dr. Oz beat Uncle Fester.

One tweet from Romney could save the day.

In 2018, Romney won his Senate seat with 63% of the vote and an endorsement from then-President Donald Trump in the Republican primary. Romney turned on him ostensibly out of principle, but probably out of spite, so it’s not surprising that he’s more popular among Utah Democrats nowadays than he is with Republicans.

It seems improbable that if Romney endorsed Lee he’d convert any Democrats. But if Romney put his finger on the scale, he could win over low-information swing voters – sheltered, suburban Utah women who “didn’t like” Trump because “sexism!” but don’t realize he was the thin orange line between the Taliban and their sex slaves or Russian soldiers and Ukrainian women.

Romney’s duplicitous support of Democrats might be a sign that he’s more of a big government liberal than many Utahns realize – the Massachusetts governor who raised taxes and passed socialized medicine – but it could be more basic.

When Romney ran for president in 2012, Lee did not endorse him, while Sen. Orrin Hatch fought for the candidate every day. On the way to his acceptance speech in Tampa, Romney snubbed Lee and hugged Hatch. At the time, that little punishment was the right response to Lee’s effete, vapidly libertarian refusal to endorse his state’s favorite son. Romney might have spent the last 10 years telling himself if Lee had helped him vanquish Rick Santorum sooner, he could have beat President Obama.

But none of that matters now. The world is on fire, and the November election could either be the water hose that puts it out or the gas can that burns everything down. The world should be more than enough for Romney to swallow his pride and endorse Mike Lee for a third Senate term.

Jared Whitley is a longtime D.C. and Utah politico and award-winning political writer, having worked in the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Bush White House, and the defense industry. He has an MBA from Hult International Business School in Dubai.