Mitt Romney, whose bid to unseat Barack Obama
looks more desperate every day, senses he’s found a weakness in his
rival. In a foreign-policy speech the other day, he blasted Obama
over the upheaval in the Arab world, saying, “This is a time for a
president who will shape events in the Middle East.” Romney is
making two claims: that Obama has failed to shape events in the
Middle East and that he, Romney, will succeed. Could the
hubris of a man seeking power be plainer? Does anyone with even a
minimum ability to think clearly believe that Romney could “shape
events” there?

It is no surprise that power attracts the sort of unsavory
people who see themselves as qualified to wield it, writes Sheldon
Richman. In a different context Adam Smith wrote that power “would
nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and
presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it. “

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