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Romney Candidacy Updates

Lots of updates.

1. Romney continues to get a lot of great, high-profile press coverage.

A big Atlantic Online Story ran and you can read it here. Like the National Review and Weekly Standard pieces, it is a great, thorough introduction to Mitt Romney and the issues surrounding his potential candidacy. Unlike those articles, it gives you a great feel into the personality and character of the man via several personal anecdotes. After summing up Romney’s qualifications, the author asks whether or not Romney is just the Republican flavor-of-the week, doomed to fade into obscurity after a time of hopeful promise.

The author’s conclusion:

But here’s betting that Romney won’t fade away. There are too many things in his favor. To name just a few: As a Republican in a Democratic state, he can plausibly claim to be a moderate when it suits him. He has an illustrious pedigree (his father was a Cabinet secretary as well as a governor and a presidential candidate). He has an impressive business background (which is attractive to both Main Street and Wall Street Republicans). His stands against stem-cell research and gay marriage, as well as abortion, make him appealing to social conservatives. His state adjoins New Hampshire, site of the first primary. And at fifty-eight he is virile and handsome. The guy just looks like a president—hardly a negligible consideration.

2. Romney is still having “problems” with what people are seeing as a change in his abortion views. I think this will follow him around through the primary process and could prove to be very problematic. Not necessarily his view (a pro-choice sympathy in the past would not be a death kiss - Giuliani is pro-choice and could still get the nomination), but the perception that he has flip-flopped on the issue.

Some indicative quotes from stories in Life News:

“We’re always happy to welcome converts to the pro-life movement,” Carol Tobias, political director for the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com.

“But he said he would not impose his views on the ‘pro-choice majority’ of Massachusetts,” she added. “If he believed that the country was pro-choice, does that mean he wouldn’t work to stop abortion? I’m still skeptical.”

and NewsMax:

Conservatives say Romney is taking a strong and consistent stand. Critics contend his evolution has more to do with politics than morality.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a politician be as clumsy or transparent or patently dishonest in a presidential run-up as Governor Romney,” said Democratic consultant Jim Jordan. “I can’t imagine him entering the presidential campaign with any credibility with either Republican moderates or hardcore conservatives.”

3. He faces some opposition with vociferous Republicans (some of it snarky) as evidenced in the Lone Star Times:

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican (scoff), has been preparing to make a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008. He recently came to an epiphany on the issue of abortion, becoming pro-life, and has generally been working hard to cast off his liberal, northeastern credentials.

Don’t be fooled.

Mitt Romney is not a good Republican, or really a nice guy for that matter.

4. The “Mormon” thing shows that it will be an issue (no surprise there). Terry Eastland has brought it up again in another article:

Apparently some people so dislike Mormonism, or find it so odd, that they wouldn’t vote for a Mormon. You can speculate about why that is. Maybe it’s the hierarchical character of the church. Or maybe it’s the church’s secrecy about things like finances or temple rituals. Then there’s polygamy, introduced by Joseph Smith (who had 49 wives) and practiced until, a century ago, the church finally realized that the federal government would not tolerate it.

And there’s church and state: Some people fear that, deep down, Mormons want to gain control of the government and turn the United States into their kingdom of God.

5. And, finally, there are weird things that speak for themselves. From the Indianapolis Star:

The most interesting piece of political paraphernalia this hot summer season enshrines the smiling visage of Mitt Romney, the Republican governor of Massachusetts, who is beginning to think of himself as America’s first Mormon president. A spin-off of campaign caps and T-shirts, this is a camisole, a sexy, stretchy, snappy little item with Mitt’s handsome face in the middle of a heart just between and slightly beneath, well, the breasts.

A matching thong is available. Customers are warned that it fits snug and sizes run small. The picture of Romney also is smaller.

I’m not sure what to make of that . . . .

August 6, 2005 | Filed Under Politics, Romney Watch 

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