Focus on conservative credentials puts Mitt Romney in least favorable spotlight
Perhaps the best thing Mitt Romney has going for him in his continuing quest for the Republican presidential nomination is that, evidently, not enough people like Newt Gingrich, think Rick Santorum has the leadership ability, or share the spectrum of Ron Paul’s economic and foreign policy views to coalesce around any of them.
Perhaps the worst thing is that the campaign is being perpetuated by a battle over conservative credentials, not the financial and turnaround skills Romney believes distinguish him from the field.
It is the most unfriendly territory from which Romney can compete in a campaign now destined to continue at least through the 10-state, March 6 “Super Tuesday’’ contests.
It is also potentially the most damaging to the GOP’s general election hopes.
In a moniker GOP thoughtmaker Rush Limbaugh criticized as a “pander,’’ the former Massachusetts governor labeled himself “severely conservative’’ during a speech Friday to the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Washington.
It was enough to send a snicker through the crowd.
Family man. Business leader. Former governor. All of those labels suit Romney with ease.
“Severely conservative’’ is a bad fit for someone who admittedly flip-flopped on abortion rights, favored an individual health insurance mandate, and once committed the cardinal sin of boasting he was an independent rather than a Reagan-Bush conservative.
Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign was undermined not by weakness in his deep and stellar resume; rather, it was damaged by doubts about the authenticity of a rightward shift – particularly in his social views – during the run-up to his first White House bid.
In branding himself “severely conservative’’ four years later, Romney added fresh currency to the seemingly never-ending doubts about his philosophical core, or whether there is anything he won’t say as he tries to win his party’s presidential nomination.
It’s telling that immediately after Romney made his comment, his campaign had to issue a press release outlining proof of his fiscal and social conservatism.
That came hours after Romney preceded his speech by releasing a letter from Massachusetts conservative leaders who also attested to his rightward views.
So far, Gingrich and Santorum have not felt the need to mount the same defense, or to label themselves similarly.
If there has been positive news for Romney since his speech, it’s that he went on to win CPAC’s candidate straw poll, as well as the Maine caucuses – both important achievements after he suffered momentum-robbing losses in the Missouri primary and Colorado and Minnesota caucuses last Tuesday.
Santorum complained that Romney had bought the CPAC vote by busing in students to vote for him. Romney claimed 38 percent of the 3,408 participants, while Santorum finished second with 31 percent.
And Paul clamored that some Maine communities had not completed their voting before the final tally was announced Saturday night.
Romney won that contest over Paul by a margin of 39 percent to 36 percent.
But in either case, Romney did what needed to be done to win.
And as the events of last week showed, he has no compunction against winning ugly.
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