Ready or not, it’s Mitt 2016! (Maybe.)
During a meeting in New York this week, Mitt Romney told a group of key donors that he is “seriously considering” a third run at the Presidency.
According to a source at the meeting, Romney confirmed, “I’ve run twice. Yeah, I want to be president,” and indicated that if he were to jump into the race, he’d do it sooner rather than later.
From the Washington Post:
“I believe Mitt Romney is too much of a patriot to sit on the sidelines and concede the presidency to Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren when he knows that he can fix the country,” [Romney’s former national finance co-chairman Spencer] Zwick said. “He traveled the country in 2014, met with voters, met with citizens, and I think at the end of the day he believes he could actually make a difference.”Zwick added, “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. He has to decide on his own.”Romney’s move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as former Florida governor Jeb Bush is swiftly snatching up major party donors and operatives as he prepares for an all-but-certain presidential campaign.
Reactions are…mixed? We’ll go with mixed:
I have to agree with what one of my friends said about the potential run: He needs to go down in history as the guy who deserved to be President.
Right now, the Republican Party (and I include Tea Partiers, “conservatarians,” and anyone else who would rather chug sour milk than vote for some iteration of a Clinton-Warren-Biden ticket) is at a crossroads. We have the technology and volunteer base to win a Presidential election; but we’re tearing ourselves apart. The danger of running a candidate like Mitt Romney has less to do with Mitt as a person, and more to do with who his ability to bring not only new voters to the Party, but a renewed commitment to reach beyond the tent and touch new communities.
In terms of messaging, a candidate is a commodity. You have to be able to sell it; and I don’t think that Republicans at large will be willing to sell Mitt Romney to undecided, independent, and weak Dem voters. He has a lot of great qualities, but he doesn’t bring anything new to the table that will motivate a lukewarm base to turn out and GOTV.
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