I’d have said that presidential campaigns kicking off the day after the mid-terms was on a par with Christmas decorations hitting the stores at Halloween… except for one thing: this allows all of us lots of time to evaluate those who are throwing their hats into the presidential-wannabe ring.
And since Mitt Romney is jumping up and down begging to be noticed, by all means Polimom will pay some attention to him.
The current (and outgoing) Republican governor of MA has all his political cilia a-quivering for sensory input, and to facilitate some feedback, he’s already begun drawing lines in the sand. The ground he’s staking? That of “I’m the most conservative Republican“:
Eager to position himself as the most conservative GOP presidential hopeful, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney accused Sen. John McCain Monday of being “disingenuous” on gay marriage.
In an interview with The Examiner, Romney described himself as more conservative than Republican rivals McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on a variety of issues. “We’re in a different place on immigration; we’re in a different place on campaign reform; we’re in a different place on same–sex marriage; we’re in a different place on the president’s policy on interrogation of detainees,” Romney said.
[snip]
Unlike McCain and Giuliani, Romney supports amending the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage. He also wants to amend the Massachusetts Constitution, although the state legislature this month balked at putting the question of gay marriage to voters.
Ohfergoodnesssake! Again with the Federal Marriage Amendment??? Polimom’s so disappointed.
I truly admired the work done in MA on health insurance, and Mitt Romney’s ability to work across partisan lines was a large part of its success. In fact, as a result of the MA health insurance reform, I’d been looking forward to hearing what Romney could bring to the presidential table.
But this is a shame — because although I’m still interested in his other positions, taking the panderous approach to this most paranoid of the social-conservative issues is a big black mark against him, and it’s awfully soon to be accumulating those, don’t you think?
National Journal’s Hotline, a compendium of insider political analysis, predicted Monday that “Romney will run squarely to the right of John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in what’s fast become a three-man GOP race.”
Well yes… I’d say so… especially since they’re who came off the starting blocks before the last race was fully finished. Anxious little president-wannabes, aren’t they?
Still, early as it is (the recently annointed haven’t even officially begun their jobs yet!), this is far more useful than Christmas music competing with scary ghost sounds in the aisles of the grocery stores.