Jobs pledge looks broken
Not long ago, there was a candidate for governor of Massachusetts whose major selling point was that he was a proven winner in the business world. He'd made millions, he understood budgets, and, crucially, he knew how to create jobs.
"I speak the language of business," Mitt Romney assured voters on his campaign stops.
This candidate said he would hit the road, reaching out to his fellow titans of commerce. He would meet with CEOs. He would sell the Massachusetts business climate. He would "fight for every job."
That was 2002. Two years later, we're still waiting for the Mitt Romney Jobs Tour to kick off.
The latest economic news came in Friday, and it was nothing short of dismal. The state lost 9,500 jobs last month, the worst monthly total in a year. The unemployment rate fell from 5.6 to 5.3, but only because many people have left the job market -- they've simply given up. Yes, the entire nation is struggling with the so-called jobless recovery. But our loss of 6.5 percent of our jobs in the past three years is triple the national average, and the worst of any state.
It's a mess, folks, and there is simply no telling when it will get better. Romney is said to be unveiling a jobs program today. It had better be a whopper.
Governors, regardless of background, don't create jobs out of thin air. But this is the guy who kept telling us that he -- unlike his Deocratic opponent, Shannon O'Brien -- knew what to do.
Romney's response so far has been to push the Legislature to cut unemployment insurance benefits. Where's the rest of the plan?
Perhaps this shouldn't be so surprising. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Romney campaign was a maddening lack of specifics. Ask how any problem would be addressed and the answer would be, "He'll do what he's always done: Put a group of smart people together, and let them figure it out." He may well have assembled a smart group of people, but if they are doing any figuring they aren't sharing it with the public, including the thousands of people losing jobs every month.
Democrats ridiculed Romney last week for suggesting that the Democratic National Convention would be better held at the new Convention Center on the South Boston waterfront. They questioned his motives, because logically he's probably right. The closer the convention looms, the more it seems that any place would be better, logistically speaking, than on top of North Station and next to the Central Artery.
But now we know why he was suddenly so eager to talk about Democrats and their extravagant convention. It's a much better topic for him than his basic failure to make headway on an issue that was nothing less than a cornerstone of his campaign -- his plan to stimulate the economy, which in plain English means to create jobs.
No one disputes Romney's track record in business. He made himself and his company untold millions. What is gradually becoming suspect is his ability to replicate that success in a very different realm. It turns out that creating jobs is not as easy as speaking the language of business and "selling Massachusetts." That might sound harsh just 14 months into his administration, but, as he might say, numbers don't lie.
Another tale from the 2002 campaign trail: In a running dispute over how best to create jobs, O'Brien said she wanted to promote small businesses and protect existing jobs, accusing Romney of wanting to recruit "dinosaurs," big companies from out of state. The Romney campaign, in response, sent an aide in a dinosaur outfit to O'Brien's events.
Funny stuff. But there's nothing amusing about the continuing loss of jobs in Massachusetts. We elected a CEO, but our employers are shrinking their payrolls. Sooner or later, the stockholders -- the voters -- may start getting a bit restless.
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.
