How Mitt Romney can win conservatives
- By Mitchell Blatt
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 21, 2015
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Mitt Romney is quoted as having told supporters that he is strongly considering a run for the presidency in 2016. |
Is the third time a charm? Mitt Romney is quoted as having told supporters that he is strongly considering a run for the presidency in 2016.
Skepticism abounds. As Romney said in the documentary "Mitt," those who lose are branded as losers for life. Richard Nixon was the only president in the last century to win the presidency in a general election on his second try.
But Romney is a driven man who learns from his mistakes. It was easy to see in the 2012 primary debates, where Romney made pointed attacks on his challengers, how much Romney had improved from his 2008 primary loss.
Moreover, Romney has earned the respect - if not the love - of the GOP's conservative base and the Tea Party. The way the race is shaping up, he might have a path to victory that builds on both "conservative" and "moderate" support.
In November 2014, Romney was the leading candidate in a Quinnipiac University poll of potential Republicans, with Jeb Bush right behind him. Bush has since become the first Republican to announce he is exploring a presidential run. Romney still leads a McClatchy-Marist poll released this week, but it is possible that his remarks were timed to slow Bush's momentum not only with voters but also donors. Both candidates are popular with wealthy, pro-business Republicans. Both are distrusted by Tea Party conservatives.
Yet, when it comes to winning hard-line conservatives, Romney has the easier case to make. Having taken on Obama in 2012, conservatives can sympathize with him. The enemy of your enemy is your friend, they say, and conservatives liked seeing Romney pound Obama in the first presidential debate. They empathize with Romney's experience suffering cheap shots at the hands of Obama and his compatriots. And they take joy in how Romney's criticisms of Obama, that Obama laughed off at the time, have come true.
When Romney said that Russia was the "number one geopolitical foe" the United States faces, Obama joked, "[T]he 1980s, they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years." Now, after Russia has gone to war with Ukraine and given refuge to Edward Snowden, scholars like Michael Kimmage are penning pieces in the New Republic with titles like, "This isn't the return of the Cold War. It's worse."
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