As Massachusetts Governor, Romney's official portrait featured a nod to his universal healthcare policy
We don't often see the intersection between art and national politics. But a closer look at former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's official painted portrait reveals a startling clue about how the Republican candidate once felt about his signature policy achievement—universal healthcare.
The investigative team at PoliticsNation has been busy researching Romney's seldom-discussed, missing years as governor of the Bay State. During the GOP primaries, Romney faced intense scrutiny from his party's base for his background as a moderate New England Republican. Conservatives reserved their greatest skepticism for Romney's healthcare legacy in Massachusetts, namely the individual insurance mandate that served as a blueprint for President Obama's healthcare reform.
While Romney constantly defended his policy as "right for Massachusetts," he rarely raised the issue himself. And yet when he sat for his official portrait, which still hangs in the state house in Boston, he chose to have his healthcare achievement forever enshrined in his legacy. A closer look at the portrait reveals a folder featuring the caduceus, the traditional staff-and-serpents symbol for healthcare. It's one piece of his record that Romney will never be able to erase.
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Has Romney ever explained why Obamny-care was so right for Massachusetts, but so wrong for every other state? What exactly made it "right" for MA and wrong for the rest of us? This guy is a congenital liar and a supreme opportunist.
Once so proud of Obamny-care that he also made a point of including it in his Official Portrait as Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney now is trying so hard to distance himself from it. Who is the real Mitt?
Romney made three requests of the artist: One, that a picture of his wife, Ann, be included in the portrait, something that had not been done by previous Governors. Two, the background should be similar to what it was when he was Governor. Three, he wanted the gold symbol representing his health care program to be shown somewhere in the portrait.