Mitt Romney In 2016: Would We Be Smart Enough To Elect Him This Time?
Mitt Romney could run again in 2016 if certain Republicans have their way, and according to recent polling that shows he’d win a do-over, it might not be such a bad idea. This was the logic that Reihan Salam adopted in his recent piece for Slate encouraging Romney to step up and run for the nomination again. Salam said he has “a soft spot for Romney, who has always struck me as a likable nerd, a man who spent his 20s and 30s raising a family instead of drinking and carousing.”
Salam adds that while “his 47 percent remarks showed him in his worst light, his decades of charitable giving paint an entirely different picture.”
“I tend to think that Romney’s struggles in 2012 flowed from his defensiveness and his fear of alienating Tea Party conservatives he didn’t truly understand,” he writes, adding, “When Romney was himself, as he was during his first debate with the president, he seemed solid and self-assured.”
Mitt Romney running again could be successful if he was wise enough to “detail how he, as a practitioner of creative destruction and disruptive innovation and all the rest, can help make these powerful economic forces work for all Americans.”
Here, here to what Salam is saying. The only other thing we would add is this: Mitt Romney would be an improvement for national security. President Barack Obama has pretty clearly lost control of his second term. With the loss of progress we’ve suffered in Iraq, the rise of ISIS, his humiliating underestimation of the Russian threat (which Romney pointed out in one of the presidential debates), and his willingness to confront radical Islam through the use of force, Romney is sort of the President that we need right now.
Additionally, his experience in the private sector complements the style of economy on which the United States was based. It’s also in sharp contrast to the dependent state that President Obama has fostered and encourage during his six years in the White House.
The stubborn U.S. economy, which has continued to sputter since the President took office, would be in more capable and experienced hands with Mitt Romney.
The only remaining question is this: are Americans smart enough to make the right decision next time — the one they now wish they’d made in 2012?
I’d like to say yes, but then, we don’t seem to learn much from election to election. What do you think, readers? Should Mitt Romney make another run at the White House, and would he stand a better chance of getting elected?
[Image via Maria Dryfhout / Shutterstock.com]
