Mitt Romney: The Nicest Guy You Don't Want to be President*

Mitt Romney is an honorable man. And not just in the Marc Antony/Julius Caesar/Shakespearean kind of way. Mitt is a really good guy! He's a very moral man, by all accounts a very generous man, when it comes to acts of personal charity. True, he was slimed during the election as being a cruel and cold hearted individual, who caused a woman to die of cancer, by firing her husband (from a company he no longer controlled), thus depriving her of her insurance. But, consider the source. The folks telling you that Mitt was killing cancer patients were the same guys telling you, if you like your doctor, you can keep him!

Mitt was the standard bearer (Or was that standard bear?) for the Republican party in 2012 against Barack Hussein Obama. Although Mitt was not my first choice, once he had secured the nomination, I supported him over that skinny kid who lied and told you you could keep your health insurance if you like it. And to this day, I believe Mitt would have been a much better president than BHO. However, you've got to admit that that is a pretty low bar!

I know it's a long way until the next presidential election, but that doesn't mean that the plotting, the planning, the scheming has taken a holiday. Some presidential aspirants are trying to get close to Mitt to see if they can tap into the donors from his last campaign. A few misguided souls think he should run again, hence, Facebook page Mitt Romney for President 2016. Granted, the numbers are small. The page has 418 "likes", which is more than I have, but then, I'm not running for president of a country of 300 million people.

Also granted that Romney got more votes than McCain did. McCain ran against Blank Slate, Hopey Changey Obama, whereas Romney ran against the four year track record of an abysmal failure of a president and still placed second. This was after his first run in 2008, putting together an organization, developing and discovering fund raisers and learning what worked in a campaign and what didn't.

Among those 418 Facebookians, there may even be some who opine that, given how much closer he came in 2012, had Romney been our nominee in 2008, he would have won! And if frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their bottoms so hard when they jump! In 2008, Obama was still the human Rorschach test, as George Will called him, and would have beaten Romney like a rented mule. After two shots at the brass ring, Romney may be an invaluable help on the organizational side, but, between his baggage and his tepid, hesitant embrace of conservatism, Romney is far from the role model we want for 2016.

As I said, there is time. The midterms may shed some light on an emerging leader. Conservatives also need to take control of the primary process, so that our opponents are not quite so instrumental in choosing our candidates for us. We also need to encourage the vanity candidates to bow out early, so that debates can be focused and substantive, and, incidentally, not moderated by liberals pretending not to be partisan.

If Romney, nice guy that he is, tries to revive his candidacy, he should be politely thanked, but...no. Romney III will never get off the ground and will only serve as a distraction from our eventual nominee, no matter how well intended Mr. Romney might be in running again.

This ain't bean bag. The Republic may not survive another disastrous regime like the one we have now.

*You didn't want him to be president in 2008. You didn't want him (in sufficient numbers) to be president in 2012. Third time is not the charm. Mitt? Buy your wife another horse!


Original art work by John Cox. More at John Cox Art
Cross posted at LCR