Mitt Romney has won every Republican presidential debate. He has outraised all of his primary opponents. Polls show he?s the most competitive candidate against President Barack Obama.
And most Republicans still don?t want to nominate him.
Continue ReadingFor all the talk about his inevitability, after half a decade as a declared or undeclared presidential candidate, Romney can scarcely muster a fifth of the GOP primary vote. Republicans continue to cast about for an alternative ? looking to Michele Bachmann, then to Rick Perry and now to Herman Cain.
None of Romney?s opponents has been able to derail him for long. But the simple fact remains: Whether it?s because of Romney?s ideas, his history of flip-flops or his personal political style, much of the Republican Party just can?t embrace its frontrunner. The question now is whether the GOP is prepared to live with an unlovable nominee if that candidate has a good shot of defeating Obama.
?People, I think, are looking for more visceral, gut issues. Mitt Romney doesn?t make that appeal,? said New York Rep. Pete King, who is neutral in the GOP primary. ?His record in the past on health care and gay rights, obviously, are the opposite of where most Republicans are.?
King said he would probably end up endorsing Romney, whom the New Yorker said was winning the primary on a largely tactical, incremental level.
?There?s no one region and there?s no one issue where he really dominates, but he has the most overall points,? King said. ?He?s not the type whose supporters are going to fall on their sword for him.?
And that, more than anything, may be Romney?s most glaring weakness, both in the primary and as a potential general election nominee.
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested that his party?s frontrunner would be helped with a ?moment? ? some pivot point in the race that will finally galvanize reluctant Republicans.
?When you get passion is when you get into a fight,? said McCarthy, when asked about the lack of fire for Romney. ?When did we get passion [for] Ronald Reagan in the fight? [It was] when he grabbed the microphone and said, ?I paid for this microphone.??
The Californian invoked John Kerry?s quick win in the 2004 Democratic primary ? citing another Massachusetts pol who failed to make activists? pulses quicken ? to make the case that Romney would end up stronger if he had a robust primary challenge.
?It collapsed too quickly,? McCarthy said of the opposition to Kerry. ?So those who were in the party never got to discuss and decide on the issues and the challenges [their nominee] has.?
Other GOP officials, however, believe the enmity Republicans feel toward Obama is even more profound than it was with Democrats and President Bush in 2004 ? meaning that the party will rally with fervor to whomever captures the nomination.
A Republican senator who has yet to endorse but is likely to back Romney acknowledged that ?some people on the conservative end are hesitant to weigh in? because of the former Massachusetts governor?s record, most notably his state health care law. But this senator argued those issues ?would not be a problem with the base in the general election? because of their intense desire to unseat Obama.
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