In a sense, our first Romney free open thread since 2007, since Mitt Romney began running for President. And by “Romney free,” I mean, we, the citizens of this country, are free from the prospect of Willard Dillard Mittens Romney III ever being our President. If you thought “Romney free” meant this open thread was free of mentions to Romney, you are sadly mistaken.
Here is Mittens on his decision to sit out 2016:
“After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I’ve decided it is best to give other leaders in the Party the opportunity to become our next nominee.”
“I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders, one who may not be as well known as I am today, one who has not yet taken their message across the country, one who is just getting started, may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee. In fact, I expect and hope that to be the case.”
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Public Policy Polling: Bush 17, Carson 15, Walker 11, Cruz 9, Huckabee 9, Christie 7, Paul 4 and Perry 2. This poll actually showed Romney leading with 21%, but I have excluded him since he has announced he is not running. I imagine his support was all due to name recognition anyway, and will now be disbursed among Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Scott Walker.
Mark Halperin says Mitt Romney has held “a jaundiced view” of Jeb Bush “dating all the way back to his handling of the Terri Schiavo case, and has come to see Bush as a non-entity in the 2016 nomination contest. Romney is said to see Bush as a small-time businessman whose financial transactions would nonetheless be fodder for the Democrats and as terminally weighed down with voters across the board based on his family name. Romney also doesn’t think much of Bush’s political skills (a view mocked by Bush’s camp, who say Romney is nowhere near Bush’s league as a campaigner). Romney also considers Bush the national Republican figure who was the least helpful to him during his last run for the White House, a position that has darkened Ann Romney’s view of Bush as well.”
Indeed, from Romney’s statement above, talking about a new generation of Republican leaders, he is not talking about Jeb Bush.
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Fox News poll: Paul 11, Huckabee 11, Bush 10, Carson 9, Walker 8 and Rubio 5. Romney also led this poll with 21%.