As Saturday’s political cartoon Is There a (viable) Republican Candidate? suggested, it seems there’s some anti-Romney sentiment even within the party. When watching this past Friday’s Washington Week with Gwen Ifil, she used the expression “Anti-Romney Rubric” the implication being the party itself might prefer it had another front runner.
Last month, a regular reader and sometime guest poster Elle led me to an article in the New York Times, Two Romneys: Wealthy Man, Thrifty Habits. In this article, the comparison to Warren Buffet seemed clear to Elle and me as well. The article quotes Mitt as saying “Just because you can afford something doesn’t mean you should buy it.†He’s rich, for sure, but he’s not a show off. Not only doesn’t he own a plane, but he shoots for discount fares on Jet Blue as a regular means of travel.
We still have over ten months until election day, and I’m keeping an open mind so far. When comparing the candidates’ plans for the economy, it seems that Romney will seek moderate changes, a bit of tinkering. Others’ plans appear too radical to stand a chance. 9/9/9? Never happen. Ron Paul’s elimination of the individual tax, along with the federal reserve? I can’t see even his own party voting these radical changes into law.
The party itself is not solidly behind Romney. The evidence in this is that throughout the primary season his poll numbers have remained constant. This is good in so much that his support is solid, but when you look a little deeper you realize that as each candidate took his or her turn in the top tier and then fell by the wayside, their supporters did not get behind Romney.
There is a sizable faction of the GOP voters that view Romney as the establishment candidate, and more likely to tinker around the edges rather than make big changes. This faction believes that big changes are needed, and so they are looking for that alternative.
That NY Times article resulted in my switching party registrations so I could vote for Romney in my state’s GOP primary/caucus. I have never done this before, but Romney seems so solid, so different from what I have seen from the GOP in the last 20 years or so, that I cannot resist. OTOH, after seeing last weekend’s GOP debates, I want to look at Huntsman a little closer. In many ways, Huntsman seems like Romney Jr.