Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is clearly setting himself up to be the leading alternative to reputed front-running John McCain for the 2008 Republican nomination:
The son of George Romney, the former governor of Michigan and a 1968 presidential candidate, Romney has worked assiduously to position himself as the top alternative to McCain.
A University of New Hampshire poll last month had the Arizona Republican in first with 32 percent, Giuliani second with 19 percent and Romney third with 15 percent.
Romney sought and won the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association, allowing him to spend this election year traveling the country and dispensing cash to his party’s gubernatorial candidates.
He raised a record $20 million and was especially generous with governors association money in early presidential states like Iowa, Florida and his native Michigan. While Republicans surrendered the nation’s gubernatorial majority to the Democrats on Election Day, Romney had a ready explanation
And Romney was quick to lay the blame for Republican losses not on his fund raising, but on the lack of ideas on the part of the GOP as a whole:
“We must return to the common sense Reagan Republican ideals of fighting for hardworking Americans,” Romney said in a postelection statement.
Finally, while Romney has taken some heat over conservative question of his stance on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, he is clearly courting the Christian Right, and they appear to be receptive:
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, an evangelical who founded the Moral Majority, said he expects Christian conservatives will focus more on Romney’s personal morality and his current views than his past statements or his faith.
“We’re not trying to find a Sunday school teacher in chief; we’re trying to find a commander in chief,” said Falwell, who traveled to Massachusetts last month to meet with Romney. Also attending the meeting were Franklin Graham, Gary Bauer, Lou Sheldon, Richard Land and other conservative social and religious leaders.
“Where he goes to church will not be a factor; how he lives his life will be,” said Falwell.
Like Ted Haggard, right Jerry ?
November 28th, 2006 at 7:43 am
[...] This, more than anything else I think, explains Romney’s recent courting of religious conservatives. Clearly, the evangelicals will be faced with a choice if Romney becomes one of the front runners for the GOP nomination (with, say, John McCain). Do they ignore the religious differences or let those differences determine their vote ? It will be interesting to watch. [...]