On his first presidential visit to address the European nations, President Obama felt it necessary to apologize for America’s international power. He repeated that apology when visiting Latin America, and again to Muslims worldwide in an interview broadcast on Al-Arabiya television. In No Apology, Mitt Romney asserts that American strength is essential—not just for our own well-being, but for the world’s. Governments such as China and a newly-robust Russia threaten to overtake us on many fronts, and radical Islam continues its dangerous rise. Drawing on history for lessons on how great powers collapse, Romney shows how and why our national advantages have eroded. From the long-term decline of our manufacturing base, our laggard educational system that has left us without enough engineers, scientists, and other skilled professionals, our corrupted financial practices that led to the current crisis, and the crushing impact of entitlements on our future obligations, America is in debt, overtaxed, and unprepared for the challenges it must face. We need renewal: fresh ideas to cut through complicated problems and restore our strength. Creative and bold, Romney proposes simple solutions to rebuild industry, create good jobs, reduce out of control spending on entitlements and healthcare, dramatically improve education, and restore a military battered by eight years of war. Most important, he calls for a new commitment to citizenship, a common cause we all share, rather than a laundry list of individual demands. Many of his solutions oppose President Obama’s policies, many also run counter to Republican thinking, but all have one strategic aim: to move America back to political and economic strength. Personal and dynamically-argued, No Apology is a call to action by a man who cares deeply about America’s history, its promise, and its future. |
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 Can Mitt Romney Save America? |
| Review Date: March 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: James R. Holland, Boston, MA |
The answer to that question is why most readers will bother buying, borrowing or reading this book by the former Massachusetts Governor and 2008 Presidential primary candidate. In this time of national and international recession the voters and affected non-voters around the world are looking for a leader who can actually solve the major emergencies facing America, Freedom and Capitalism itself.
As the grandson of American Immigrants whose family was run out of Mexico by Mexican revolutionaries angry with American Expatriates, Mitt grew up as part of a family that worked themselves up from desperate poverty to live the American Dream. His father worked as a wall plasterer while he supported his family and worked his way through college. He eventually earned his way into the presidency of American Motor Corporation (AMC) and bet his house (or at least the money he'd made from selling his home) on the successful development of the Rambler compact car. He later became three-time governor of Michigan.
Mitt grew up in a family that had strong core values and he discusses those core values throughout this book. This reviewer actually met most of Mitt's family including Gov. George Romney when Mitt ran an unsuccessful campaign for Senate in Massachusetts. The whole family was part of that campaign and the lessons they learned with that loss served Mitt well a few years when he successfully won election for the Governorship of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Romney managed to do a good job managing that state even though he didn't have enough Republican legislative votes to uphold a veto and therefore had to reach across the aisle to the Democrats controlling the State House in order to accomplish his agenda.
Romney believes that if America becomes a victim of socialism that freedom throughout the world will be lost. If the nation is not careful, it will become a second rate world country--still strong enough to survive, but not strong enough to defend freedom anywhere else in the world.
"There are three pillars that sustain a free and strong America:
l. A Strong Economy
2. A Strong Military
3. A free and Strong People."
Romney then provides an agenda for a free and strong America. His list of goals includes 64 separate items and even Romney admits that his is not a complete list of changes needed. Studying that agenda will provide the reader with a decent idea of how Romney would tackle the nation's problems.
The book's second chapter "Why Nations Decline" is also instructive. Mitt briefly examines the reasons the Ottomans, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Chinese, the British, the Soviets--these were all super-powers of their respective eras "and they were all surpassed." The reasons for these nation's failures were eerily similar to much of what is occurring in the USA and Western Europe.
The book examines many of the reasons for today's problems and provides some pretty decent ideas about how to solve them. Romney also describes why many people prefer to live in denial of the facts and why in past civilizations that failure to face undeniable facts led to the destruction of those great civilizations.
In the book's eleventh and last chapter this reader was surprised by some personal
stories that brought tears to my eyes. Since I was reading while seated at the Prudential Center Food Court Terrace, it was a little embarrassing to suddenly finding my eyes tearing up and salty streams trickling down my cheeks. That anything in this volume might require having tissues available was a total shock. Surprise, surprise, because the previous 99% of the book had been straight-forward logic and business-like explanations of Romney's beliefs and ideas on how to solve the nation's rapidly expanding and very dangerous problems, this ability to bring forth tears in an audience was enlightening.
The text was not boring and there was a little humor such as Mitt's description of the fall his wife Ann experienced when the stage they were speaking from in Dubuque, Iowa, collapsed. When she got up, "dusted herself off, and later ad-libbed, `Well, I fell on de butt in Dubuque.'" The man obvious isn't just a cool headed, unflappable, maybe sometimes seemingly unfeeling man; he is an experienced leader and well schooled in the workings of Capitalism, industrial production and job producing economics He is also amazingly well spoken and as Bostonians know, he used to sometimes substitute as a host on a popular conservative talk show in order to keep in touch with the Massachusetts public. He wasn't afraid to talk to the general public, but he relished the opportunity that only talk radio provides for contact with typical voters. He loved that form of give and take communication.
This is a good read for this political genre. It will provide the information that many people will need to decide if years of leadership experience should triumph over hope. |
An inspiring American Story
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| Review Date: March 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Susanna Hutcheson, Midwest U.S.A. |
In his new book, which is perhaps his entry into the next presidential election, Mitt Romney talks about foreign policy and domestic issues --- he delivers some possible solutions as well. He wants America to be safe and active with a vigorous free market. He discusses national security, economic productivity, education and energy among other things.
Romney does use lots of data to back up his opinions. That's actually a good thing, though some people might be turned off by it.
Romney tells us, "This is a book about what I believe should be our primary national objective: to keep America strong and to preserve its place as the world's leading nation. And it describes the course I believe we must take to strengthen the nation in order to remain prosperous, secure, and free."
But we also learn about Romney, the man.
He is the son of a third generation American Immigrant whose family was run out of Mexico by Mexican revolutionaries. He grew up as part of a family that worked itself up from horrible poverty to live what most consider the American Dream.
His father worked as a wall plasterer while he supported his family and worked his way through college. Mitt's father became president of American Motor Corporation (AMC) and later became three-time governor of Michigan.
Romney discusses the values he grew up with. Of course, he went into politics like his father before him. He tells us in his book that if America turns to socialism, freedom throughout the world will be lost. If we are not careful with what we have left, we'll become a second-rate country.
I found the book enlightening and hopeful. I think you will too.
- Susanna K. Hutcheson |
No Apology
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| Review Date: March 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Jed M. Merrill, APO, AE United States |
Considering the title No Apology, you might think this book is possibly just an attack ad on President Obama's "apology tour." To the contrary, No Apology is an expression of optimism, alongside the positive premise that we need to do more to pass America on to our kids and grand kids a free and strong nation.
No Apology is equally divided between foreign policy and domestic agenda concerns. If you watched Mitt's appearance on The View, you know his top three concerns (aside from replacing the President, the Senate, and Congress!) are protecting the threatened American dream (including managing debt), making Medicare sustainable, and reforming education (hiring from the top third of our schools and paying higher starting salaries to this higher standard of teachers!) These concerns along with some specific prescriptions and creative ideas are major themes of his book.
Ultimately, this book is Mitt's humble and inspiring attempt to contribute to the conversation of what America should be. It's not about election or reelection, but doing what is right for our kids and grandkids, the real America.
If you're not sure what to think of Mitt, be sure to take your Amazon copy of No Apology to one of the stops on his book tour! This book is authentic Mitt, and those who understand the real problems America is facing would be crazy not to consider him for our next President. |
Clear, powerful vision
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| Review Date: March 6, 2010 |
| Reviewer: SteveNY, New York, NY USA |
| Mitt Romney is a superb communicator with great clarity of thought. The book resonates and informs, and is a good overview of his philosophy. Its a good read. |
No apology needed for this book.
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| Review Date: March 3, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Robert Busko, North Carolina |
I have to admit that I became angry with President Obama as he traveled the globe apologizing for the greatness of the United States. No other American President has stooped to such a low level to garner favor with other governments and other peoples. Has the United States made mistakes in the past? Absolutely! This is not the forum to debate those mistakes and why they were made. Suffice it to say, no government; no country; and no religion; and no people have clean hands. I'll take this country and our mistakes over anyone else.
Now, Mitt Romney's No Apology: The Case for American Greatness is a book that lays out a plan for changing the course the United States has been on that will halt the dry rot that is eating away at our foundations. No Apology is organized into intelligently written chapters laying out his arguments. Chapter 2, Why Nations Decline, is one of the most instructive in the whole book. Reading it is sobering (even I can see the connections). Equally sobering are the chapters dealing with domestic issues. However, No Apology is not a doom and gloom book. It states its concerns and warnings clearly but then provides ideas for solving the problems. I found the whole book to be one part alarming and three parts inspiring.
Some specifics?
Fact. Rebuild the manufacturing base in the country. No economy can exist without "manufacturing" and we need to be mindful of that fact. Minimum wage jobs in the fast food industry won't keep us strong.
Fact. Education needs to be fixed. We don't have enough engineers, designers, and just plain capable dreamers to keep the American economic engine going.
Fact. We need to be wary of both China and Russia. They're trying to overtake us militarily. We can pay for a strong defense in dollars, or pay on the battlefield in blood.
In total Romney gives us 64 points to think about and the book is loaded with data.
Finally, as another reviewer has pointed out, Chapter 11 provides the Mitt Romney backstory. Though I'm reasonably familiar with his story, I will say that I found the chapter to be very insightful. Given that the new paradigm for running for President seems to require the publication of a book, I would say that No Apology: The Case for American Greatness is a fitting effort and lays out the beginning of a campaign platform.
Regardless of your political affiliation, No Apology is worthwhile and important read.
I highly recommend.
Peace to all.
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