Posted on 09/30/2014 9:25:10 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
In recent days and weeks there has been renewed speculation that Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president will again be a candidate in 2016. There has been some talk about this for months, but it has grown louder in recent days. Yesterday, The Washington Post described Mr. Romney’s evolving potential candidacy as “The road from ‘I’m not doing it again’ to ‘Circumstances can change’ is paved with favorable polls, 2012 predictions that came true and public statements from supporters.”
Last week in an article titled “Romney 2016 is Real,” The Washington Examiner wrote “Romney is talking with advisers, consulting with his family, keeping a close eye on the emerging ’16 Republican field, and carefully weighing the pluses and minuses of another run.” Also last week, Jonathan Last at The Weekly Standard posed the rhetorical question of whether the possibility of a Mitt Romney 2016 candidacy is real and offered the response “Do I really for real think this is real? Oh yes. I believe that it will be a very short hop for the Romneys to talk themselves into ‘America needs me/him now.’”
For Mr. Romney there is no downside to this speculation at this time. If he ultimately decides not to run, a few weeks of generally positive media coverage and a brief return to the almost national spotlight will have done him no harm. However, if Mr. Romney decides to run, it is to his benefit to get in the race sooner rather than later.
Despite Mr. Romney’s defeat in 2012 to a vulnerable incumbent President Barack Obama, the rationale for another Romney candidacy, at least from a strategic perspective, is reasonably clear. None of the Republicans whose names are most frequently mentioned now, even those of potentially strong candidates like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul or Chris Christie have ever raised the money and built the kind of organization necessary to run for president. There is only one Republican who has built a legitimate presidential campaign structure and is not to old to run in 2016. At least for now, that alone is reason why a Romney 2016 candidacy cannot be ignored.
If Mr. Romney runs in 2016, it could be a very different race for the former Massachusetts governor, perhaps more difficult than he might realize now. In 2012, Romney ran against a very weak field of candidates. Potentially strong opponents like Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman never put their campaigns together. Other major candidates, notably Rick Perry, turned out to to be terrible campaigners. Ultimately nobody raised enough money to compete with Mr. Romney who when 2012 began had raised more money than the next two Republicans combined. Mr. Romney’s strongest primary opponents were former speaker Newt Gingrich who relied heavily on the donations of eccentric right wing billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Rick Santorum who simply never did the work to raise the money to compete, and Ron Paul who most traditional Republicans did not like. Despite this advantage in fundraising and organization, Mr. Romney still only won 40% of the votes cast in that primary suggesting that he was never beloved within his own party.
That was the context in which Mr. Romney was able to, relatively early in the campaign season, win support from most Republican opinion leaders and fundraisers. If this time around any of the other Republican candidates can convince those political and financial elites that they too are serious candidates, Mr. Romney will no longer enjoy the monopoly or support from those groups that he had in 2012. That will make for a very different primary campaign this time for Mr. Romney. Right now the attention and mentions of a possible campaign in 2016 is good for the defeated 2012 Republican nominee, but turning that buzz and media attention into a successful primary campaign may prove a lot tougher against a stronger and better funded primary, especially as some of those candidates are already getting commitments from important donors.
Nominating Mr. Romney may seem to some Republicans like a quick and easy solution to a difficult primary season, but the candidate who lost for the party in 2012 might do just as poorly in 2016. In 2012, Romney made a tactical decision to position himself as a true conservative across the spectrum of issues. On balance, that was a mistake. It helped him get through a primary season he was going to win anyway but made it harder for him to win voters from the center in the general election, while never enjoying more than begrudging support from his party’s conservative base. That too is part of Romney’s legacy and will not serve him well in 2016. If Cruz or Rubio or another well funded conservative emerges, Romney will be vulnerable from the right in a primary. Even if he manages to win the nomination, Romney’s efforts to position himself, not always plausibly, as a right wing conservative and his unfortunate sound bites from 2012 will make it difficult for Romney to expand Republican support in what will likely be a difficult general election campaign.
He couldn’t beat a terror supporting Islamic radical in the last election so let’s run him again. Maybe this time Democrats will nominate an eggplant so we can have the first eggplant President. All the eggplant has to do it sit there and say nothing in the debates while Romney jabbers on about jobs although he’ll pronounce it as “jabs” and he’ll keep saying it over and over “jabs jabs jabs jabs jabs” until people are sick to death of him like last election and the eggplant will easily win.
What part of “we were played for SUCKERS that LAST TIME!” did YOU not “understand”? The Name Romney(like Bush, Ford, MacCain, Ryan) is DEAD to ME(and a lot of other FRs).
If we nominate Romney and they nominate Hillary, the door will be wide open for a firebreathing third-party populist agitator to waltz into the White House.
Yeah “the talk” is coming from Tokyo Rove and Willard himself.
Maybe Hillary is talking about it.
Only the elites want him again. Sadly that’s who runs the party.
I’m going to get the disgusting but necessary task of voting for Grimes against McConnel. I look forward to it like a root canal. But like a root canal, sometimes the long term requires it.
Wouldn’t surprise me. After all, look at the RNC, which voted againt to keep Reince Priebus as chairman, despite the massive, embarrassing loss of 2012. Just like FoxNews kept Karl Rove and even upped his appearances after he made a total fool of himself on election night. It would be just like the GOP to run Romney again. After all, he’s so “electable,” right? That was the nonstop drumbeat from the party leaders.
The GOP is the only organization I know of that seems to “reward” poor performances and defeat. But when they have success, like in the cases of huge enthusiasm and momentum from cross-country tea party events (2010) to massive crowds for Palin (2008), they do everything they can to pour cold water on all that energy.
I never expressed any pro-Romney or anti-Romney-opponent ideas or concerns, so I'm not a concern troll. Take deep breaths until the paranoia passes.
We’re loosing airspeed, the wings are shaking, and the nose is dropping, but the Repulsican party “leaders” want us to pull back on the stick ‘cuz “that makes houses smaller”.
I’ll NOT vote for RINOmney. I like the guy, but I’m tired of liberal lite. Either it’s the real picture or I’ll await the sure to come civil war.
That would be funny, except that you are 100% correct.
Excellent! I’m invoking Drill’s Law: “Picking Up Steam articles proliferate in inverse proportion to a candidate’s actual viability.”
Just say no to Romulus.
Seriously, can anyone point to anything that Willard or Rove have actually said that would indicate that Romney is running?
I haven’t heard a peep about him running. A lot of speculation, though. Speculation doesn’t amount to a hill of beans and just gets people worked up.
If Romney says he will run then it’s time to get busy and put a stop to it.
Nobody remembers Tom Dewey or Harold Stassen, both were repeated candidates back in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Both were finally swept away by the advent of Dwight Eisenhower, of whom nobody even knew if he was a Republican or Democrat until the Republicans managed to pull him in, for the 1952 nomination season.
Still couldn’t find out if he was a Republican or Democrat, but he did have star appeal.
FYI...”eggplant” is frequently used as a slur for black people amongst the Tony Soprano crowd.
What if you went to a restaurant, read the menu, but every time you tried to order something you really want and need to keep body and soul together, they told you, “sorry, we’re out of that”?
That’s kind of the way it is nowadays for the conservative clientele of the Republican Party.
“Hello, welcome back to the Pachyderm-a-RINO Restaurant! I’m Mitt and I’ll be your server today.”
“Oh, hello again. Why don’t you give me some of this ‘Balance the Budget and Stop Deficit Spending Now’ stew, please. I’ve always wanted to try it.”
“Oh, that’s really good stuff, you bet...but....sorry, Chef Boehner says that if you want that you’re a big baby and just don’t understand how the kitchen works.”
“Oh my...well, okay, I guess...let’s see...hmmm...then give me some of that ‘Limited Government” salad...”
“Oh, the healthy dish that’s in all our ads...well.....no....sorry, that’s just too hard to make. The media critics would have a field day if we started cooking that up, and we’d lose our jobs, so no, you can’t have that either.”
“Wow. Hmmm...well...okey-dokey then...how about some of this ‘Provide Equal Protection For the Right to Life’ entre, with a side of ‘Defend Marriage’...”
“No, of course you can’t have that. Court order. What are you, a single-issue extremist?”
“Well, noooo...I like lots of things...uhmmm...do you have any ‘Secure the Borders’ succotash?”
“You are so heartless.”
“Oh, well, gee thanks. So, is there anything at all I can actually order in this joint?”
“Well, no, but you can pay the bill, leave a big tip, and tell everybody in town how great it is that you didn’t give your business to the Donkey Grill down the street - just like you always have!”
By golly, you’re right. I just looked it up.
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