leave mitt alone

Some social conservatives can’t accept victory. Mitt Romney will not be our next President. They got what they wanted. They won. Seems to me they can’t take yes for an answer. Thanks to their support of anyone but Romney, we are now stuck with McCain. Now a small vocal group of malcontents is making threats not to support McCain if he picks Romney as VP. They even have printed an ad (see PDF here). First of all, McCain knows that he got this far without their support, so what makes them think they have any influence on him now?  There’s also no guarantee this group wouldn’t sit the election out no matter what McCain does with Romney.

This is incredibly stupid on their part.  There’s no need to make threats about it, because McCain wouldn’t pick Romney anyway.  In some ways, Romney would be a smart choice.  He does shore up a McCain weakness as far as knowing something about the economy, so it does make sense in these economic times to take that aspect into consideration.  He would certainly be a desirable choice over Governor Crist, Governor Pawlenty, and McCain’s BFF Lindsey Graham.  Any of these guys more closely mirror McCain’s positions on the issues than Romney does.  But as much as I think Romney would make a fine VP, and even President someday,  now is not the time, and McCain has some better choices if he really cares what social conservatives want (that’s doubtful).

There are many other ways for Romney to raise his 2012 or 2016 profile without tying himself to a possible McCain presidency.  Of course, McCain’s VP may be the Republicans’ 2012 nominee, but I think Romney would be a strong contender without that built-in advantage.   He will have 4 to 8 years after the 2008 election to build up his conservative credentials.  I know that there are fellow Mitt fans out there who have complete faith in the guy, and who may find it unfair that he still has to prove himself to social conservatives, but we have to acknowledge that there are misconceptions out there that cause people not to trust him.  He has the ability to change this.  He just needs time.  Being McCain’s VP isn’t the right move for Mitt Romney, and with the other options McCain has, it’s not the right move for McCain either.

6 thoughts on “leave mitt alone

  1. Lets talk about incredible stupidity for a second;

    Did Willard run to the Left of none other than Teddy Kennedy for his senate seat??…why yes, he certainly did.

    Did Willard permanently ban a long list of firearms for an entire state of America??…Yup, that’s the guy.

    Did Willard design, endorse and sign into law a socialist and mandatory healthcare program which if it is not struck down by the courts as unConstitutional it will bankrupt the state which they are already on the ropes from their outrageous entitlement spending??…Yeah, that’s our Willard Mitt Romney.

    Willard Mitt Romney
    http://willardromney.blogspot.com/

    Learn what happened to know what we have to do;

    How the Republican Party Committed National Suicide By JB Williams
    http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_19227.shtml

    Who Hijacked the Primaries? by Brett Winterble
    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24726

    The Death of Conservatism? 43 Mistakes and the GOP’s Dobson’s Choice
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961546/posts

    GOP Leads Astray
    http://gopleadsastray.blogspot.com/

    Conservative Blackout by Lisa Fabrizio
    http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12517

  2. You’re blaming Mitt Romney for the death of conservatism??? Seriously?

    He’s not the nominee. McCain is. McCain will not pick Mitt Romney for VP, so no one needs to worry about that, or make threats to sit out the election, or anything similar to that. It’s not enough that Mitt isn’t the nominee. These socons have to keep him from accepting any VP offer from McCain. It’s not worth fighting over Mitt’s VP possibilities. When was the last time a VP actually made any significant policy decisions?

    In a way, you’re actually making my point for me. You don’t trust Romney because of his previous Massachusetts record. That’s why now is not the time for Mitt to be President or accept an offer to be McCain’s VP. I think he can win over the socons who don’t trust him. It’s just not going to happen in ’08.

  3. “Some social conservatives can’t accept victory. Mitt Romney will not be our next President.”

    Lisa, you obviously don’t understand. We’re committed to making sure Mitt-Flop is not our next next President either. The 2012 primary has already begun, and McCain’s VP selection will have significant impact on that race.

  4. I agree that McCain’s VP selection will give that person a significant advantage. But I just don’t see a scenario where McCain would pick Romney as his Vice President. He knows that some social conservatives still do not trust Romney, and I’m not sure McCain does either. All I’m saying is that social conservatives don’t need to worry about Mitt as VP, because it’s very unlikely, no matter what the relationship between Mitt and McCain looks like in front of the cameras.

    All of us agree that Mitt shouldn’t be McCain’s VP. But I do think he has the opportunity to gain the trust of social conservatives between now and 2012. There will be some of those who, like you, will never trust Mitt Romney. That’s ok. But he should be given the opportunity to prove himself. Then let the voters decide whether they find him more acceptable in 2012 than they did in ’08.

  5. Clearly Winghunter and Rich are lefties.

    It’s like operation chaos in reverse, where lefties invade the conservative blogosphere in order to sew chaos.

  6. If they really want to sow chaos, then they should pick a more popular blog than mine. 🙂 I can’t believe that after Mitt has already conceded ’08, some people still feel that they need to damage his future prospects. It’s a waste of energy, and that energy could be better spent finding more conservatives to run for Congress. That’s where the damage is being done these days.

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