Romney Formally Expresses Interest In Third Presidential Run, Puts Donors On Hold

Jewish Political News and Updates ^ | January 10, 2015 | Staff

[2ndDivisionVet]

Mitt Romney has formally expressed interest in trying his luck for a third time, just weeks after former Florida governor Jeb Bush announced the launch of an exploratory committee to run for president in 2016, The Wall Street Journal first reported Saturday.

“I want to be president,” Romney reportedly told about 30 donors in New York. Everybody in here can go tell your friends that I’m considering a run.”

Romney on Friday also e-mailed his donors with invitations to his fourth annual policy summit in Park City, scheduled for June 11-13.

Just a year ago, in an interview with The New York Times, Romney commented when asked about another presidential run, “Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.”

So what has changed since?

“I believe Mitt Romney is too much of a patriot to sit on the sidelines and concede the presidency to Hillary Clinton or [Massachusetts Sen.] Elizabeth Warren when he knows that he can fix the country,” Spencer Zwick, Romney’s 2012 national finance chairman, who accompanied Romney to Friday’s New York meeting, told The Washington Post. “I think, at the end of the day, he believes he could actually make a difference. He won’t make a decision to run for president based on who else is in the race. He will make a decision based on his own desire and his own abilities.”

Friday’s declaration of interest by Romney is seen as an attempt to block donors from flocking to Bush, now considered the establishment candidate.

Veteran GOP consultant Ed Rollins told the Post, “Romney knows that he can block donors from going to Bush if he sends a clear enough message.”

“If you put Romney and Bush head to head, I think Romney probably wins that fight,” Rollins was quoted as saying. “Nobody is wholesale walking away from him. The donor base and operatives are still there. Bush thought he’d have an open field to easily beat Christie. Romney, if he gets in, changes that plan.”

The 2012 presidential nominee argued in private conversations, Politico reported, that Bush will likely face some of the same criticism over his own extensive business ties.

A former Romney adviser was quoted by BuzzFeed as saying, “Jeb is Common Core, Jeb is immigration … Can you imagine Jeb trying to get through a Republican primary? Can you imagine what Ted Cruz is going to do to Jeb Bush? I mean, that’s going to be ugly.”

Nonetheless, members of Romney’s inner circle remain skeptical that the two-time Republican presidential contender will make a third bid for the White House. For starters, he has done little to convince even close allies that he is serious about it, TIME’s Zeke Miller writes.

[bigbob]

Sounds like there’s bad blood with Jeb too.

[Diogenesis]

"But the details of the event are more than unseemly
- they may, in fact, be illegal.
Massachusetts's animal cruelty laws
specifically prohibit anyone from carrying an animal
"in or upon a vehicle, or otherwise,
in an unnecessarily cruel or inhuman manner
or in a way and manner which might endanger
the animal carried thereon.
"An officer for the Massachusetts Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals responded
to a description of the situation saying
"it's definitely something I'd want to check out."
The officer, Nadia Branca, declined to give
a definitive opinion on whether Romney broke the law
but did note that it's against state law to have a dog
in an open bed of a pick-up truck, and
"if the dog was being carried in a way that endangers it,
that would be illegal."

[Nuc 1.1]

If Mitt wanted to be president, why didn’t he fight in the second debate? Run Mitt run!! Run Jeb run!! Run Christe run!! Any other libtards we can get running?

[Nuc 1.1]

Correct.

[ModelBreaker]

“...when he knows that he can fix the country,” Spencer Zwick, Romney’s 2012 national finance chairman, who accompanied Romney to Friday’s New York meeting, told The Washington Post.

This is the problem. Our ruling class thinks they can fix things. Obama does. Romney does. W did.

All they can do is get out of the way or mess things up.

[Yossarian]

I'm going to self-ostracize here and say I think Romney's a good guy and would have made a damn fine president, especially for the economy.

There is what Romney says, and there is what Romney does. Right after the election, Romney went around stabbing conservatives and conservatives positions in the back. I won't forget that.

Would Romney be better than Obama? Well, wouldn't eating shoe leather be better than eating dung? That isn't the point.

[Yossarian]

(But I agree with you on Cruz. The man puts his ass on the line for his country and its founding principals - even when it costs him politically with the current powers in DC.)

[catbertz]

I’m going to be sooo disgusted if Hillary flies in on her broom because of these idiots.

[VTenigma]

No Jeb, No Mike, No Chris, No Mitt, No vote.

[I want the USA back]

Does he ever learn?

[CommerceComet]

would have made a damn fine president, especially for the economy.

Then why was Romney such a crappy governor?