He’s kinda sorta maybe changing his mind!
For most of the past year, Mitt Romney supporters have publicly said he should consider running again. And for most of the past year, Romney has seemed uninterested.
Until recently.
While some people close to Romney insist he hasn’t moved from saying he has no plans to run, the 2012 Republican nominee has sounded at least open to the idea in recent conversations, according to more than a dozen people who’ve spoken with him in the last month.
In his private musings, Romney has sounded less than upbeat about most of the potential candidates in the 2016 Republican field, according to the people who’ve spoken with him, all of whom asked for anonymity in order to speak freely.
He has assessed various people’s strengths and weaknesses dispassionately, wearing what one ally called his “consultant cap” to measure the field. He has said, among other things, that Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, would run into problems because of his business dealings, his work with the investment banks Lehman Brothers and Barclays, and his private equity investments.
Anyone else here old enough to remember when journalists would quote anonymous sources for more concrete information? These days we’re treated to a lot of shadowy speculation.
It is chuckle-worthy that Romney is assessing the strengths of other candidates, given that he had very few of his own (“Nice guy” isn’t a strength in a presidential election, sorry kids).
The potential Jeb people/Romney people discord is interesting, however. That’s two pools of old GOP money battling it out, which could help a candidate without the good old boy network cred emerge.
This is probably just more wishful thinking on the part of the MSM hacks, who know an easily beatable candidate when they see one and are more than happy to keep manufacturing reasons for Republicans to look at him.
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