Mitt Romney for President?

At this point, Mitt Romney is battling John McCain for second place in the Republican polls trailing frontrunner, Rudy Giuliani, by a considerable margin. His campaign just hasn't really taken off, and if Fred Thompson gets in, Romney will fall farther back. Why has Romney not made more of a splash with the public? Maybe for the same reason, he hasn't made me excited, at least not yet.

Romney, of course, was most recently the Republican governor of Massachusetts, which is pretty much akin to an Israeli being King of Saudi Arabia. (OK, that's a wild exaggeration.) It seems that he did a credible job holding down the crazies on the left who so dominate that state. Of course, Romney had to take some positions in Massachusetts that would be palatable to the left, such as supporting abortion rights. That, of course, is coming back to haunt him in the Republican primaries. Romney says that he has changed his view and is now pro-life. Many see that as political flip-flopping. He also has come more to the right on the issue of illegal immigration.

That aside, there doesn't seem a whole lot to attack Romney on-unless you have a problem with his Mormon religion. I don't care, but there are some out there who do, unfortunately. One thing that he certainly has going for him is his squeaky clean personal image. Unlike some of his competitors, like McCain, Giuliani and Gingrich, there are no divorces or sexual scandals in
his background. This would also bear him in good stead if he were win the nomination and run against Senator Clinton, who, .........well, you know all about that.

Maybe Romney's clean vanilla image is also a bit of a problem for him. Though he is miles away in philosophy, he kind of seems like the Republican's version of John Edwards, at least physically. You know, young, handsome, Hollywood central casting version of the young politician. A John Edwards with Wildroot. (Do they still make that stuff?)

All kidding aside, Mitt Romney seems a very decent guy with at least a moderate conservative approach. So far, I haven't heard him say anything that bothers me. Would I vote for him in the primaries? Probably not at this point, but there is still a long way to go. It may yet develop that he will ultimately be the one with the best chance of beating Hillary. Then he will get my vote.