Why Romney F**ked Everything Up!
I submitted a column to the Sun Herald and Sunherald.com today. I hope they pick it up. And not just for the byline. I really think Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are dangling from a thread. Instead of helping, Mitt Romney seems to have brought out the scissors.
Before I explain case, I'd like to tamp down some of the crazier reactions I've been seeing and reading since Romney's speech. First, most of the anti-Romney crowd are using the fallacious argument that Romney lost the last election and therefore is automatically wrong in his assessment. Most of these folks, until three days, ago would have commiserated with anyone who said, "Too bad Romney lost. Our country would be so much better off if he'd won." And they would be right. But now, just because he disagrees with the way forward for Republicans, those same people have checked their brains at the door and are now forgetting how many things Romney got right during his last campaign. These things (trade, free markets, Mali, Russia, Egypt) that would have marked him as a great president.
HOWEVER. the detractors are correct when they say, "Too bad Mitt didn't go after Obama like he tore into Trump!" Had Romney done so instead of being so heavily handled in 2012, he'd be running for reelection right now and we wouldn't be having this conversation.
But his plan to "defeat Trump" is fatally flawed and had damaged the party and the conservative cause. Here's why:
He has called on the Rubio, Cruz and John Kasich to somehow split some of the remaining states, by...what? Telling voters in some states to vote for the others? And worse, the stated goal would be to force a brokered convention. This is as undemocratic and the Democrat party's superdelegate scheme. Why should voters vote for Rubio, let's say, instead of the candidate they favor in order to allow party hacks to duke it out on the convention floor and dictate who we nominate. Who says, even if Trump doesn't carry the requisite votes, he wouldn't buy his way in at the convention anyway? This is by far the dumbest plan I've ever heard. It's like saying, " I know! Let's climb Mount Everest by building a mountain right next to it and jumping across." You might find a way to pile up that much dirt, but why would you. And the whole idea is contemptuous of the voter.
There is no guarantee the voters are so tuned in that they would realize if they like Kasich in Florida, they are supposed to vote for Rubio instead. The sad fact is, Rubio is not going to win Florida. Kasich may not carry Ohio. Romney's plan smacks of empty cleverness and likely won't work.
In a previous post I made the argument that Rubio should drop out and Cruz should declare Rubio as his running mate immediately. You can click here to read the reasoning. I will only repeat that there is no other safe scenario where the remaining three can feel reasonably capable of beating Trump at all.
This is not a shot at Rubio. I like him as well as Kasich. I dislike Cruz but recognize that at the moment he has the best ideas and the best chance of clinching the nomination IF Rubio drops out. If not, all three are going home.
If Rubio doesn't join forces with Cruz before Florida and Ohio it will likely be too late to wrest enough delegates to deny Trump the nomination. If Marco stays in he will be as responsible for a Trump candidacy and a Clinton landslide as Romney's dumb-ass plan of Trump's cult.
Finally, this should all been done quietly. To call for a party to gang tackle on of your own candidates during a primary, as opposed to rallying voters to YOUR candidate with the weight of your argument, you damage the party by soiling your brand.
Thanks for the input Mitt, but you've done more damage than you probably realize.
Matt Jordan is a travel writer, political commentator and author of 16 20 24. Get your SIGNED copy here!
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