Just how much “what mood is Mitt Romney in this month?” coverage does the political world need?
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 past month.
Allahpundit loves the traffic and the comments sections bursting into flame, Quin Hillyer loves the idea of multiple “Establishment” candidates beating each other up in the 2016 primaries, and the former Mitt Romney team probably loves the status that comes from being connected to a potential contender.
But whether you love Mitt Romney or hate him — and I think quite well of him — do we really need these monthly updates on how he feels about running for president again? Let us know when he decides! We don’t need regular readouts on his conversations with friends. “He put syrup from New Hampshire on his pancakes this morning, which I think is a key indicator.”
Separately, Romney’s enthusiastic fans are misreading the current warm feelings towards the former nominee. Right now, the vast majority of Republicans think Mitt Romney is a good man, a flawed candidate, and a man who would have been an exponentially better president than Barack Obama. The contrast with the current president, and his cavalcade of second-term failures, is what really drives conservatives who had some lingering doubts about Romney to intensely wish they could magically reverse 2012’s results.
If Mitt Romney runs in 2016, the moment he announces he’s running, a lot of that goodwill dissipates. At that point, Romney’s not the alternative to Barack Obama — a preferable alternative to every Republican. He’s the alternative to (possibly) Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum . . . In other words, Romney goes from the guy you wish had won to the guy who could beat one of the options you currently prefer or find intriguing.