{"id":9187,"date":"2011-12-22T20:14:11","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T00:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=9187"},"modified":"2011-12-22T20:14:11","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T00:14:11","slug":"the-remarkable-revival-of-romney-the-michigan-view-12-22-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/the-remarkable-revival-of-romney-the-michigan-view-12-22-11","title":{"rendered":"The remarkable revival of Romney (The Michigan View 12.22.11)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newt Gingrich may be the Republican Flavor of the Month, but the real story on the cusp of January’s Iowa primary is the remarkable comeback of Mitt Romney. Just six months ago he was written off as a Dead Man Walking by the conservative establishment. Unelectable. Terminal.<\/p>\n

Toast.<\/p>\n

Like Michigan’s Rick Snyder in 2010, he was an unelectable RINO despite deep pockets and impeccable organization. But just as Granholmnomics predicted the failure of Obamanomics, Michigan is proving to be America’s’ barometer in the 2012 election as well. One Tough Nerd meet One Tough Mitt. As in the 2010 governor’s race, conservatives have realized that a competent businessman is their best hope to win independents and a must-win election.<\/p>\n

How dead was Romney?<\/p>\n

The tea party tsunami of 2010 announced the overthrow of Obamacare as the defining issue of 2012. Romney’s Massachusetts fling with the individual mandate was a sin. When the former governor refused to disavow Romneycare – Obamacare’s evil Massachusetts twin – in a closely-watched May speech in Ann Arbor, conservatives all but wrote off his GOP nomination chances.<\/p>\n

“The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board is painting Mitt Romney as a ‘compromised and not credible’ candidate for president,\u00a0wrote Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prominent National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg called the speech “a sincere, intelligent, cogent, informed political disaster.”<\/p>\n

“Romney has a huge problem that a wide array of Tea Partyers, Republican activists and officials, and conservative operatives think he can’t overcome: RomneyCare,”\u00a0concluded Jennifer Rubin<\/a>, author of The Washington Post’s influential “Right Turn” blog after polling conservatives at the annual CPAC summit in February. “If there is one point of consensus among plugged-in Republicans on the 2012 field, it is that Romney can’t win unless he does a mea culpa on RomneyCare. Since he didn’t and he won’t do that, he’s not going to be the nominee.”<\/p>\n

He was finished. Rejected by the body conservative. Not.<\/p>\n

Last week, conservatives from National Review to Ann Coulter to Bill Bennett rushed to the microphone to denounce Romney’s only remaining viable opponent, conservative icon Newt Gingrich, as. . . unelectable. The clear inference of this piling on: Mitt Romney is conservative’s pick as the most-electable candidate.<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/p>\n

Through a combination of skill, circumstance, and sheer luck, Romney has emerged as the candidate for the times. Yes, the son of successful Michigan Governor George Romney could have clinched the nomination long ago if he had only renounced Romneycare in 2009. Or 2010. Or even last May. He didn’t, but his vow to repeal Obamacare upon entering the White House reassured the Right.<\/p>\n

More importantly, as Obamanomics has strangled the recovery in its crib, 2012 has become an election about jobs and leadership – not ideology. Alarmed by Barack Obama’s abdication of leadership, voters – just as in Michigan after Granholm – crave competency. Romney’s unflappable demeanor in the GOP debates reminded voters what that looks like. And like One Tough Nerd in Michigan, One Tough Mitt’s business background is not only reassuring – but the antidote to Obama’s painful lack of management experience.<\/p>\n

“Governor Romney won our endorsement last time,” wrote National Review in its anti-Gingrich edit, reminding readers that Mitt was the conservatives’ choice over John McCain. “He is highly intelligent and disciplined, and he takes conservative positions on all the key issues.”<\/p>\n

Romney was also lucky in his opponents. Heavy-hitters like Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie demurred. A third Great Right Hope, Rick Perry, was more impressive on paper than on the field. Cain imploded. Newt polarizes. The latter two also reminded voters of the importance of family stability in a nominee – so much for Mormonism being a negative.<\/p>\n

And so conservatives have resurrected Romney after driving a stake though his heart.<\/p>\n

As Iowa approaches, Romney\u00a0has surged ahead<\/a> in the latest Rasmussen poll. In a state he wasn’t supposed to win. Just like the nomination he wasn’t supposed to win. Like Snyder in 2010 (against Virg Bernero), Mitt will face the class warfare arrows of a Democratic demagogue. And like Snyder (and the ghost of Jennifer Granholm), voters will respond to an executive who knows how to create jobs.<\/p>\n

Or so conservatives are convinced. Welcome back, Mitt.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newt Gingrich may be the Republican Flavor of the Month, but the real story on the cusp of January’s Iowa primary is the remarkable comeback of Mitt Romney. Just six months ago he was written off as a Dead Man Walking by the conservative establishment. Unelectable. Terminal. Toast. Like Michigan’s Rick Snyder in 2010, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9188,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187\/revisions\/9188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}