Romney: How Long Can He Steer Clear of GOP Craziness?
David Corn
Politics Daily
Mitt Romney, the sort-of second place finisher in the 2008 Republican presidential sweepstakes, is taking a different approach this year. Rather than trying to create an early splash, Romney is taking his time in declaring a presidential bid and, as The New York Times puts it, "is operating in a cautious, low-key fashion...with limited news coverage." The conventional view is that the former Massachusetts governor is doing so to avoid becoming the official front-runner--a position that would place a large bull's eye on his back. But there may be another reason: he doesn't want to live in Crazy Land. And at the moment, the GOP nomination contest is chock-full of crazy.
A brief recap:
* Mike Huckabee, on a campaign book tour last week, focused on two messages: President Barack Obama is really a Kenyan at heart who attended madrassas, not Boy Scouts meetings, when he was a lad, and that's why he doesn't like the West, and Natalie Portman's engagement pregnancy is of national concern. When Americans are worried about the economic future of the nation, Huckabee was slight bit off-topic.
* In an absurd mini-drama last week, Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and his aides put out conflicting signals about his 2012 intentions, signaling he would announce a presidential run, then that he would set up a committee to explore whether he should run. Finally, he held a press conference to declare...that he and his third wife, Callista, had set up a website dedicated to "exploring whether there is sufficient support for my potential candidacy." The bare-bones website had but one page: a sign-up page for potential supporters. "It was ridiculous," a former Gingrich aide told me. "This showed just how undisciplined and chaotic he can be. Not qualities you look for in a president. It was amateur hour." (By the way, months before Huckabee got into the act, Gingrich claimed that Obama's "Kenyan anti-colonial mindset governs the president's actions," which he claimed were "authentically dishonest" and "factually insane.")
(More here.)
Politics Daily
Mitt Romney, the sort-of second place finisher in the 2008 Republican presidential sweepstakes, is taking a different approach this year. Rather than trying to create an early splash, Romney is taking his time in declaring a presidential bid and, as The New York Times puts it, "is operating in a cautious, low-key fashion...with limited news coverage." The conventional view is that the former Massachusetts governor is doing so to avoid becoming the official front-runner--a position that would place a large bull's eye on his back. But there may be another reason: he doesn't want to live in Crazy Land. And at the moment, the GOP nomination contest is chock-full of crazy.
A brief recap:
* Mike Huckabee, on a campaign book tour last week, focused on two messages: President Barack Obama is really a Kenyan at heart who attended madrassas, not Boy Scouts meetings, when he was a lad, and that's why he doesn't like the West, and Natalie Portman's engagement pregnancy is of national concern. When Americans are worried about the economic future of the nation, Huckabee was slight bit off-topic.
* In an absurd mini-drama last week, Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and his aides put out conflicting signals about his 2012 intentions, signaling he would announce a presidential run, then that he would set up a committee to explore whether he should run. Finally, he held a press conference to declare...that he and his third wife, Callista, had set up a website dedicated to "exploring whether there is sufficient support for my potential candidacy." The bare-bones website had but one page: a sign-up page for potential supporters. "It was ridiculous," a former Gingrich aide told me. "This showed just how undisciplined and chaotic he can be. Not qualities you look for in a president. It was amateur hour." (By the way, months before Huckabee got into the act, Gingrich claimed that Obama's "Kenyan anti-colonial mindset governs the president's actions," which he claimed were "authentically dishonest" and "factually insane.")
(More here.)
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