Posted on 09/30/2015 1:06:49 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I know some of you guys worry that I’ll be trolling you with “Romney 2016?” posts right up until the hour the polls open next November, but I promise you this:
You’re right. I will be.
Skip to 9:30 below for a choice snippet from Ann’s interview with Brian Kilmeade this morning. The magic is back:
“All I can say is, we are in New York City, Mitt’s been with me a lot today, over the last few days and we have been walking the streets and people are screaming out there windows, I mean people on the street, people stop us on the street, everyone is saying ‘come, get in, jump in’, we hear it, we get a lot of phone calls, people are calling all the time, from our past donors saying ‘it’s time to think about it again’. We are assessing, it’s not like we are making a different decision, we are on the sidelines, we made a decision in January not to jump in. Like everyone, we are mystified by this race and entertained at the same time but there’s a lot of ups and downs in a primary and we went through this too by the way in our race, a lot of ups and downs. It’s a long way from being over.”
“Mitt and I are not even ready to talk about it,” she insists. I don’t know about that — Mitt did a little talking at this morning’s “ideas forum” sponsored by The Atlantic:
Romney on running for president: "I wish I could do it again." James Bennet: "You can!" #ideasforum
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) September 30, 2015
Mitt Romney: “I will support the Republican nominee. I don’t think that’s going to be Donald Trump."
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) September 30, 2015
Here’s a fun thought experiment for this, my thousandth “will Romney run?” post on Hot Air. What sort of deadline is he looking at realistically for getting in, and what would have to happen before then for Romney to seriously consider it? I think, if he’s going to do it, he’d have to make his move by the end of October. If he waits any longer than that, he risks his campaign getting lost in the holiday shuffle as voters’ minds turn to Thanksgiving and Christmas. He’d want to be at the debate on October 28th to take advantage of the huge Trumpian spotlight to reintroduce himself to voters. Meanwhile, the two most important preconditions to a Romney run have already materialized — Jeb Bush has grossly underperformed expectations and the GOP establishment increasingly seems in danger of having the nomination stolen away by a populist, be it Trump or Ted Cruz. The donor class needs a deus ex machina. Enter Mitt.
The question is, why on earth would they prefer Mitt Romney to be that hero instead of Marco Rubio with lots of Romney’s donor network behind him? Rubio’s implosion is the sole remaining precondition to Romney taking the idea of a run seriously, I think. Walker’s gone, Bush and Christie are struggling, and Kasich is unacceptable to parts of the base, but Rubio’s had two good debates, has kept his early campaign spending low, and is creeping into the top three or four of many polls. Apart from name recognition, which will change in time, there’s no reason to want Romney diving in and scrambling the race instead of sticking with Rubio for awhile and seeing how he fares. (Don’t say “immigration” either. If you think Romney 2016 would take the same hardline position as Romney 2012 on “self-deportation,” you’re kidding yourself. That’s the first perceived “electability” mistake that Romney would seek to correct if he ran this time.) Basically, unless Rubio collapses due to scandal over the next four weeks or so, I expect Mitt will sit quietly and wait for one or two of the other centrists in the race to fade before formally endorsing Rubio himself. I think that’s what he and Ann are “assessing” — whom to back and when — more so than any third run for the presidency.
But don’t hold me to that when I troll you about this again next week.
Yes, please, RINO establishment. Your boy Jeb is sinking like a hunk of lead, so have a real “winner” in the wings just in case. /sarc
“Assessing” what? Whether they’re pulling your legs or just being mean?
3 times a loser, that’s what he’ll be.
Jump, Mitt Jump.
There’s always that 0.001 percent of the vote left after Walker bailed. Go for it.
Must mean that Bob Dole is assessing too.
Yes we need Romney like we all need cavity searches by the TSA.
RUN, MILT, RUN!
Hillary needs a replacement.
You know, you run into people everywhere you go who say, dang, I wish Romney would just give it one more try.
Romney! Thats the guy! He could turn this thing around, look Putin and the Iranians in the eye and have them looking for a place to hide!
See if I’m right. Go down to the donut shop and see if almost everyone isn’t talking about Romney! maybe getting into the race.
We don’t blame you for wanting to get him out of the house, Ann, but we aren’t at all interested in having your husband run again.
The Apology Wing of the GOP’s favorite candidate is back.
Hey Ann and Mitt, I gotchyer ass...essink RIGHT HERE!
Jeb and Romney should pool their resources and run to defeat Hillary in the Democrat primary.
Oh wait....he’s thinking about running as a Republican??
Can they scrape the bottom of the barrel any further? Imagine a Romney/jeb ticket? If you look up loser in the dictionary you will see a picture of Romney holding a picture of McCain holding a picture of jeb!
You sure do post a lot of crap. Just sayin’
I’d sooner vote for George Pataki...
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