The Washington Examiner found that 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney sounded very much like a man who would be interested an independent run for the White House Thursday. He was “dismayed” by both major party candidates and unwilling to support Donald Trump on the GOP ticket.
But the Examiner‘s Philip Klein reported that Romney wasn’t volunteering to be the independent candidate himself. “No, I’m certainly going to be hoping that we find someone who I have my confidence in who becomes nominee,” he said. “I don’t intend on supporting either of the major party candidates at this point.”
Lo and behold, Romney did meet Friday with Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to discuss a possible independent candidacy, with the former Massachusetts governor or someone else as the standard-bearer. (The Weekly Standard and the Washington Examiner have common ownership.)
Kristol told the Washington Post he wanted to get Romney’s “wisdom on whether [a conservative third-party run] was more or less doable” than he thought.
Romney running against the Republican ticket (and, of course, the Democrats) four years after being the GOP nominee would be interesting. Until Trump is formally nominated at the Republican National Convention, Romney is still the titular head of the Republican Party as we discuss this.
While it seems farfetched at the moment, there are two ways to look at this idea.
In terms of symbolism, Romney would seem ill-suited for the task of leading disaffected anti-Trump conservatives. While his flip-flops and deviations from conservative orthodoxy may no longer seem so significant compared to Trump’s they are still a matter of public record.
Romney lost the last election, as Trump is fond of reminding people. He is an establishment figure. He would write Trump’s narrative of GOP elites thwarting the will of (40 percent) of Republican voters for him.
In terms of practicality, however, there is probably no one better positioned to do this than Mitt Romney. A younger, more ambitious conservative might have a chance of actually being elected president on the Republican ticket someday. They’ll be reluctant to risk being seen as the Ralph Nader of the right in 2020, after four years of Hillary Clinton.
Most elder statesmen who don’t have to worry about their political futures will be further removed from their prime. Their name identification may have declined and they may not be at the top of their game as campaigners or spokesmen.
Romney occupies a sweet spot in between where he is not far removed from the rigors of a national campaign, he is still a capable defender of his policy positions in the media and he is well known.
The ex-governor has the money to launch such a campaign even at the last minute. Thanks to his high name recognition, he would probably be able to win a lot more votes than some of the more obscure alternatives.
Finally, I suspect, though I obviously don’t know, that Romney regrets deferring to Jeb Bush and company at the beginning of the Republican primaries.
At the very least, it shows how wide a net anti-Trump conservatives are willing to cast to find an alternative to the likely Republican nominee.
