Mitt Romney’s not running, he announced in an 11am conference call today. I think that’s the right decision for him and the party. In my Washington Examiner column yesterday, I assumed that he would and wrote, “I thought that Romney would not mistake the affection Republicans have shown for his debate performances and now-vindicated criticisms of President Obama’s foreign policy for a yearning for a third Romney candidacy. Evidently he has.”
My mistake: Evidently he did not. Romney made references to recent polls showing him currently ahead of other Republican candidates, but he also said he “fully” realized “it would have been a difficult task and a hard fight.” I take it that he recognized that his poll lead owed much to name recognition and the “affection” I referred to and that his numbers might well prove evanescent as other candidates became better known.
After announcing he wasn’t running, Romney said: “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.” Is “one of our next generation” a dig at Jeb Bush? Maybe. Romney, like Hillary Clinton, was born in 1947, one year after Bill Clinton and George W. Bush; Jeb Bush was born in 1953. But maybe not. Bush hasn’t yet taken his message across the country, at least not as a presidential candidate.
Anyway, a dignified statement and a recognition of political reality.
