Mitt Romney

Is Donald Trump Mitt Romney with the common touch?

Featured image Here’s a different way of viewing Donald Trump’s appeal. Think back to Mitt Romney’s emergence as a candidate of some appeal. What was the case for Mitt? It resided mainly in his success in business and in a high profile business-like venture — saving the Winter Olympics in 2002. The case for Trump is, in many ways, different. Trump is the anti-politician; Romney had served as governor. Trump seems mad »

Presidential hopeful touts his gucci store

Featured image After hearing Hillary Clinton’s claim to have left the White House “dead broke,” is it refreshing to hear Donald Trump say, “I have a Gucci store that’s worth more than [Mitt] Romney”? No it is not. Trump’s bragging is as distasteful as Hillary’s poor-mouthing. Some say “it’s not bragging if you can do it.” Actually, that’s exactly what bragging is. If you can’t do it, it’s lying. It has been »

Hillary Clinton’s Bain Capital

Featured image Newsweek reports that “one of the biggest benefactors to the Clinton Foundation has been trading with Iran and may be in breach of US sanctions imposed on the country.” The “benefactor” in question is Victor Pinchuk, described by Newsweek as a “Ukrainian oligarch [who] has courted the Clintons for at least nine years – in the United States, the Alps and Ukraine.” Newsweek says it has seen declarations and documents »

Crowley will not referee this fight

Featured image You may have heard that Mitt Romney will lace on boxing gloves and enter the ring to go toe to toe with former undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield in Salt Lake City on May 15, all in a good cause. The cause is Charity Vision. The Salt Lake Tribune reports on the event here. Neil Cavuto asked Romney about the upcoming “fight” yesterday on his FOX News show yesterday afternoon. »

Romney Won’t Run [Update]

Featured image Mitt Romney announced to his supporters this morning that he will not seek the GOP’s 2016 presidential nomination. His reasons are a bit murky; he said that he wanted to “go out on top,” and, currently leading in the polls, feels that he has done that. Whatever. It is a good decision and I applaud him for it. The only times in recent history when one of our major parties »

Romney Regresses On Climate

Featured image Mitt Romney is never a dollar short, but he is often a day or more late. This week, he showed that he has not been keeping up with developments in climate science: As he considers a third presidential campaign, Mitt Romney said Wednesday night that one of the country’s biggest challenges is climate change and that global solutions are needed to combat it. “I’m one of those Republicans who thinks »

What’s the difference between Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush?

Featured image Clearly Romney and Bush disagree about immigration policy. But the key difference, I think, is this: Mitt Romney is a patrician who lacks the common touch, but wants to show he doesn’t think he’s better than the rest of us. Jeb Bush is a partician who possesses the common touch to some extent, but seems bent on showing his superiority. That’s my takeaway from the former Florida governor’s obnoxious claim »

Jeb Bush v. Mitt Romney — the personal is political

Featured image It looks increasingly likely that Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney will both seek the Republican presidential nomination. Washington Post political reporters Phillip Rucker and Robert Costa discuss the relationship between the two. The first part of their article is the equivalent of a friend telling you, “I like Joe.” The second part of the article is the equivalent of what comes after the friend adds, “but.” As always the second »

Romney “considering” presidential bid

Featured image Mitt Romney reportedly has told a group of donors in New York that he is considering running for president again next year. With Jeb Bush trying to round up donors, Romney needed to indicate interest, but only if he has some. Clearly, he does. Romney is expected to announce his decision within the next 60 days, according to Spencer Zwick, one his advisers. Having reportedly told the donor group that »

Democrats lack bridge to the future

Featured image It’s official: the Democrats are divided on their path to 2016. The Washington Post, in front page story has declared it so. The division is already known to anyone who has been paying attention. Steve Hayward has been writing about it for a long time. Pass me some popcorn, Steve. The division, explains the Post, is between pragmatists like Hillary Clinton (just to pick a name) and hardcore ideologues like »

Coming Soon to a Utility Bill Near You?

Featured image The New York Times today has a long news story (“Energy Bills Send Shivers in New England”) about soaring utility bills in the Northeast, where many people are seeing 100 percent increases in their energy costs over just a few months ago: For October, [John York] had paid $376. For November, with virtually no change in his volume of work and without having turned up the thermostat in his two-room »

Big GOP donors keeping their 2016 powder dry

Featured image The Washington Post reports that, on the whole, wealthy Republican donors are unwilling so far to commit to a candidate for president. According to reporters Matea Gold and Tom Hamburger, the donor class is “wary of fueling the kind of costly and politically damaging battle that dominated the 2012 primaries.” More to the point, it’s unclear at this early juncture which potential candidate it makes the most sense to support. »

Grubergate and the Romney Blowback [with comment by Paul]

Featured image Talk of running Mitt Romney again in 2016 has died down in the aftermath of the mid-term election, where so many potential candidates look a lot stronger now, but the last nail in the coffin of a Romney repeat is his connection with Jonathan Gruber.  The video below, put together by the Obama campaign in 2012, uses Gruber extensively to attack Romney (which, once again, shows that the White House »

Romney’s foreign policy team, then and now

Featured image Josh Rogin reports that leaders of Mitt Romney’s 2012 foreign policy brain trust have kept the team together in a secret effort to influence lawmakers and potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates. This operation is called the John Hay Initiative. My first reaction is that I love the name. John Hay is one of the most underrated figures in American history — a brilliant Secretary of State and an outstanding man »

Romney was right, corporations are people too

Featured image Mitt Romney received much criticism for saying during his 2012 presidential campaign that “corporations are people, my friend.” In the same connection, liberals (though not all) have rallied behind the idea that, by their very nature, corporations cannot hold religious beliefs for purposes of the First Amendment. But Romney was right. Corporations have feelings and emotions — like pride, disappointment, and humility — and they are capable of feeling hurt. »

Is there life after college?

Featured image Of course there is. But our leading politicians all seem to have stepped out of your college dorm. Bill Clinton is the guy who never lost a BS session argument. Ted Cruz is the only guy who never lost an argument to Bill Clinton, but who also set the dorm record for causing eyes to roll. Barack Obama is the guy you could usually defeat in an argument but only »

So, When Will Barack Obama Be Apologizing to Mitt Romney? [Updated]

Featured image In October 2012, at the height of the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney sensibly observed that Russia is “our number one geopolitical foe.” The Obama campaign immediately pounced, releasing this attack ad featuring the slow-witted Madeline Albright, which accused Romney of being an out of touch cold warrior: Knowing what we know now, those smug comments can only provoke hollow laughter. One wonders: who did Obama think was our number one »