Recycled Mittens

Mitt Romney backlash intensifies

Conservatives argue he has too much baggage and the GOP needs a fresh face.

By Katie Glueck

“Recycled.” Not the “new blood” the GOP needs. A man who “had his shot.” A “terrible candidate.”
A Republican backlash against Mitt Romney that had been simmering for days boiled over on Wednesday as conservatives across the GOP spectrum panned the prospect of another presidential bid by the former Massachusetts governor and two-time loser on the national stage.

Leading the anti-Romney charge was the voice of the GOP establishment wing, the Wall Street Journal editorial page. “The question the former Massachusetts Governor will have to answer,” the newspaper wrote, “is why he would be a better candidate than he was in 2012… The answer is not obvious.”

The Journal’s owner, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, piled on: “He had his chance, he mishandled it, you know? I thought Romney was a terrible candidate.”

And in a Wednesday evening interview with POLITICO, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who’s considering a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, said that the reemergence of Romney could offset the Republicans’ advantage if their Democratic opponent is Hillary Clinton.

“I think the best way to counter something from the past is with something new,” Walker said.
On it went from there.

The critical reception marked the latest stage of post-2012 conservative sentiment toward Romney. In the immediate aftermath of his loss, he was the feckless, wooden candidate who blew a prime opportunity to snatch the White House from an unpopular Democratic incumbent. Next came the “maybe he wasn’t so bad, after all” phase, when Romney seemed vindicated by President Barack Obama’s recurring second-term missteps. That lasted much through most of 2014.

Now it’s reality-check time. The faded memories of Romney’s 2012 shortcomings are snapping back into focus as he drifts, with apparent seriousness, toward yet another run for the White House. The harshly negative reaction presents an early test of Romney’s resolve, against what’s certain to be a more formidable field than he encountered last time.

An opinion piece titled,“The problem with Romney nostalgia” by the conservative writer Jonah Goldberg was typical of the backlash.

“The problem is that ‘Romney for president’ is now an art-house film thinking it’s a blockbuster franchise and that there’s a huge market for another sequel,” Goldberg wrote. “There’s not.”

Former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating told The New York Times, “People say he is a very fine man, but he had his chance.”

Even Sarah Palin took a shot.

“We need new energy,” the former vice presidential nominee told “Inside Edition.” “We need new blood. We need new ideas.”

Romney’s allies insist that conservative pundits and GOP voters see the 2016 field differently.
“Mitt happens to lead all the polls, so clearly there is a good deal of affection and loyalty to him among rank-and-file Republicans,” Eric Fehrnstrom, a longtime Romney aide and associate, wrote in an email Wednesday night.

They also point to the other failed presidential candidates eyeing another run: former Sen. Rick Santorum, outgoing Texas Gov. Rick Perry, ex- Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Republican political history is littered with examples of candidates who have run at least once before going on to win the nomination. Veterans of those campaigns say that there are benefits to having run before, including already-existing donor network, high name recognition and firsthand knowledge of the stresses of a presidential campaign.

Some Romney backers feel that the former candidate has been vindicated on many of the issues on which he ran in his last campaign, including foreign policy. They say he would be better-prepared and “different” this time around.

“Our economy is still not as strong as it could be, long-term growth is in doubt, workers have gone a long time without pay raises and can’t save for a kid’s college or their own retirement, and around the world there’s deep concern that as America’s leadership has unraveled, hostile forces have filled the vacuum,” Fehrnstrom said earlier this week. “Mitt Romney spoke to these issues in the last campaign, he was right on many of them, and I expect if he runs again they will form the core of another campaign for president.”

Sen. Rand Paul, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican, has already sought to exploit the old vs. new fault line that Romney’s re-emergence threw into sharp relief.

“I think he could have been a good leader of the country,” Paul said in an interview with POLITICO. “But I think many people are going to say, ‘He’s had his chance.’”