Mitt Romney 2016: Former GOP Candidate Reinventing Himself As Champion Of The Middle Class


Mitt Romney appears more and more to be leaning toward another presidential run in 2016, and if the former GOP candidate does enter the race it could be with a new and re-crafted image.

Though Romney had long denied wanting to run in 2016, it is looking increasingly likely that he will toss his hat in the ring for the Republican nomination. If he does return, Romney may be taking up a new cause — the middle class.

Romney, who has been plagued by a reputation as an elitist due to his massive personal wealth, has been making poverty an increasing focus.

As the Huffington Post noted, “Addressing a gathering of Republican National Committee officials below deck of the decommissioned U.S.S. Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego, California, Romney ticked off three priorities crucial to what he called the ‘post-Obama era’: making the world safer with a more muscular foreign policy, providing opportunity to all Americans, and lifting people out of poverty.”

“It’s a tragedy, a human tragedy, that the middle class in this country by and large doesn’t believe that the future will be better than the past,” he said. “We haven’t seen rising incomes over decades.”

It would be quite a turnaround for Mitt Romney. During the 2012 campaign he made several statements that appeared to show disdain or disregard for the poor, including a now-famous speech in which he appeared to write off the “47 percent” of poor Americans who regularly vote for Democrats.

“I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it,” he said following his victory in the Florida primary. “I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”

Not everyone is on board with the idea of Mitt Romney running for president in 2016, however. After a losing primary campaign in 2008 and a failed GOP nomination in 2012, many fear that he will not be able to shake the “loser” label that he’s earned. Others feel that the Republican Party is moving on to new and fresher candidates that don’t have the baggage Romney brings.

“(A Mitt Romney candidacy) really kind of throws a wrench in everything,” Saul Anuzis, a longtime Michigan Republican leader who backed Romney in 2012, told the Boston Globe. “Mitt Romney is truly respected and loved here. No doubt the committee has a great deal of positive feelings for him. But I also think everybody’s kind of surprised.”

But others feel that Mitt Romney could fill the leadership void that currently exists within the GOP. While many expected candidates like Chris Christie or Jeb Bush to take the lead, none of them have been able to separate themselves and take control the way Hillary Clinton has within the Democratic Party.

If Mitt Romney does run for president in 2016, it will likely take more work to break free from his past. In 2012 he embraced Paul Ryan’s budget plan, one that would have enacted deep cuts to programs meant to help the poor. He has also promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act and it subsidies for the poor.

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