Looking for the GOP change agent in N.H.

By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist  |  January 6, 2008

MANCHESTER, N.H.
IOWA CHANGED a lot, but not everything.

On the Republican side, John McCain is still telling people what they don't want to hear. And after spending at least $10 million and still losing to Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney is more desperate than ever to say what he hopes will be popular.

Like the business consultant he once was, Romney is racing to fine-tune a new message quickly enough to please the client/voters in New Hampshire.

From Democrats and Republicans, the message from Iowa was change. So, now change is Romney's big theme, too.

Washington is broken and he's going to fix it. He's painting McCain as the status quo Washington insider, mirroring Barack Obama's positioning of Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side. And the latest Romney attack goes beyond that.

Ignoring the fact that his new hero, Ronald Reagan, was 69 when he first took office and 73 when he was elected to a second term, Romney is also targeting McCain's age. Making references to the problem of "old faces" in Washington, Romney said, "Sending back the same old people just in different chairs is not going to fix Washington."

At a town hall meeting in Manchester Friday night, the former Massachusetts governor began to flesh out this emerging version of Mitt Romney, change agent: He's the venture capitalist who saw the genius of investing in a home office supply store. He's the white knight who rescued the Salt Lake City Olympics. He's the Republican governor who pushed Massachusetts liberals to achieve healthcare reform.

As always, there's another side to the Romney story. He's also the CEO whose company scooped up weaker companies and flipped them for big profits, after firing employees and reducing benefits to cut costs. Without millions in bail-out money from the federal government, he could not have turned around the Olympics. And if healthcare reform does succeed in Massachusetts, it will be because Democrats who control the state Legislature made sure business pitched in to pay for it, over Romney's veto.

McCain has the New Hampshire press behind him, including the conservative Union Leader. But that free media muscle will be tested against the millions Romney is spending on attack ads - and by McCain's own unpopular positions.

Even friendly McCain audiences bring up issues that could be hazardous to his primary day health. Employees who gathered Friday for a town hall-style session at BAE Systems, a defense and aerospace company in Nashua, gave him a standing ovation. Then the Arizona senator was asked to clarify his position regarding amnesty for illegal immigrants, based on confusion raised by a Romney ad. McCain was also asked to explain his antitorture stance and define what he means by victory in Iraq and how long it will take to achieve it.

Waiting for the candidate to appear, electrician Ron Fournier, an independent voter from Wilton, said he's interested in McCain, but undecided. He listed the usual pluses of McCain's presidential bid: "He's a seasoned veteran. . . . You get an answer from him." Fournier, 64, said he doesn't support Romney because "I don't know where he stands." Asked about McCain's immigration reform advocacy, Fournier said, "That's a little shaky. I don't like that at all." Afterward, Fournier said, "I'm still interested" - but, he's still undecided, too.

By winning Iowa, Huckabee set the stage for change in the Republican presidential race. But polls indicate that the former Arkansas governor won no bounce in New Hampshire. On Friday, at a rally at New England College in Henniker, Huckabee played bass guitar with a local band, "Mama Kicks." He looked unfazed as the lead singer swiveled jeans-clad hips at him; unfortunately, he also looked unpresidential. The crowd cheered loudest for his celebrity backer, actor Chuck Norris.

So, who picks up the mantle of change in the Granite State?

Can voters gaze at a 71-year-old longtime US senator who is not given to happy talk and see an agent of change in the Oval Office? Romney, of course, hopes not.

McCain hurt himself last week by suggesting he might be a one-term president, putting his age front and center. But voters can get past his date of birth if they decide it's grown-up time in America.

They can weigh the character of a former POW against that of a former venture capitalist. They can conclude that it takes real conviction to have a real agenda for change and that it takes real backbone to make change happen.

Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.