Can the President Run for President Again

The year 2022 is shaping up to be a good year for the electoral prospects of the loyal opposition. Two years after losing the presidency — and and so watching helplessly as Donald Trump's petulance poisoned the Republican try to win in Georgia and keep control of the Senate — the GOP is suddenly poised for a comeback in Congress.

Aggrandizement and ascension gas prices, frustration with liberal political leaders who clung to COVID-19 restrictions well by their expiration date, and concerns about how the administration is handling the twin threats of Russia and Communist china (to say nothing of the U.S.'s bungled exit from Afghanistan), have all caused Joe Biden's poll numbers to plummet.

Biden began his presidency with a 53% approval rating, according to FiveThirtyEight; he's now at 42%, even after a post Country of the Union bump. If this situation endures until November, Republicans should easily retake the House and possibly the Senate besides.

At that signal, all eyes will plough to the 2024 presidential election, in which the Republicans will be well-positioned to make Biden a one-term president. Swapping out Biden for another Democrat — something oft-proposed by easily excitable pundits — is a nonstarter; to heighten merely one objection, his almost likely successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, is fifty-fifty more unpopular.

Virtually any political figure with an R adjacent to his or her name will look like the favorite, with the possible exception of Trump, who inspires rabid loyalty among a contingent of the Republican base of operations while actively scaring off the suburban swing voters needed to take back the White House.

But while Trump would be i of but a few Republicans who might actually struggle to beat Biden in a theoretical matchup, there are certainly ways for the GOP to improve its odds, beyond just non nominating Trump. Indeed, there is one candidate who would nearly certainly concenter independent, moderate and even Democratic voters — perhaps enough of them to win something budgeted a landslide, if electric current weather condition concur.

As a plus, he's no novice: In fact, he's already run for president.

I am talking, of course, about Manus Romney.

Then-Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Paw Romney poses with children wearing shirts which spell out "Romney" every bit he campaigns at the Iowa Events Center, in Des Moines, Sunday, Nov. iv, 2012.

Charles Dharapak, Associated Press

The current inferior senator from Utah, sometime governor of Massachusetts and 2012 GOP presidential candidate is less loved by some Republicans than he was a decade ago because the hardcore MAGA crowd considers him a traitor to Trump. But amid not­-Republicans, his star has never shone brighter. He has burnished his brownie as an independent-minded politician who is not agape to challenge Trump: He is the just Republican senator who voted to captive the president in both impeachment trials.

This would be a massive liability in the Republican primaries, of course, merely it's a huge asset in a full general election.

Romney's foreign policy credentials would also play well in the current moment, particularly since Russian federation's aggression will undoubtedly remain an important campaign upshot. Information technology was Romney, subsequently all, who named Russian federation the U.South.'s No. 1 geopolitical foe during a debate with President Barack Obama. That merits prompted derision from Obama, who said, "The 1980s are calling to inquire for their foreign policy dorsum … the Cold War has been over for 20 years."

That jape has not aged well. Simply Romney has.

At 74, he'southward currently v years younger than Biden; in terms of his comparative energy level, he could be two decades younger than Biden. If his speeches and media appearances are any indication, Romney has lost piddling of his eloquence; his Jan. half-dozen, 2021 speech post-obit the set on on the U.Southward. Capitol — in which he lamented "a selfish human being'due south injured pride, and the outrage of supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed and stirred to action'' — still resonates more than than a year later.

It's truthful that Romney paid a political price for breaking and then decisively with Trump. Only it has likewise made Romney one of the most contained minded political effigy in the country's history. It bears repeating that this independent streak would practise him no favors in the Republican primaries. The MAGA faction demands zilch brusk of perfect loyalty to Trump. Simply many persuadable voters outside the Trump bubble will appreciate that Romney is a man of convictions who was willing to condemn and punish Trump'southward behavior.

Democrats practice not view Romney with the aforementioned knee-jerk fearfulness and scorn that they feel for other Republicans. Amidst Democrats in Utah, Romney has an approving rating of threescore%. He's improve liked by Democrats than he is past Republicans.

In this Oct. iii, 2012 file photograph, Republican presidential candidate quondam Massachusetts Gov. Hand Romney and President Barack Obama talk subsequently the first presidential debate at the University of Denver in Denver.

Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press

The relentlessly tribal, bitter, 2-sided nature of modern American politics ways that the campaign would plummet some of these distinctions: Eventually, the media would set on Romney only as viciously every bit if he were Trump, and his approval amid Democrats would fall. The other side of that money is that many Republicans would conveniently forget his "Never Trump" heresies.

The key advantage for Romney, nonetheless, is that the media wouldn't be so quick on the describe: The years of goodwill Romney has earned would be his advantage.

In fact, a prospective Romney campaign would benefit from having withstood withering, frequently misguided media criticism during the 2012 bicycle. Reflecting on his ain misguided treatment of "honorable" Republicans similar Romney, the liberal commentator Bill Maher once said, "We cried wolf. And that was wrong."

"The key advantage for Romney, all the same, is that the media wouldn't be so quick on the draw: The years of goodwill Romney has earned would be his advantage."

Who tin recall Romney's infamous "gaffe" that he was so excited to include women in his government that he possessed, quote, "binders full of women"? The media took Romney's slightly awkward phrasing and used it to argue that the remark somehow proved he was toxic to female voters. "The comment shows how out-of-touch Mitt is with women," wrote The Daily Animal'south Marlow Stern.

Never mind that Romney did really possess said binders, which were recovered and delivered to The Boston Globe years later: That the media fabricated a mountain out of this particular molehill reflects much more poorly on them than on Romney. By the standards of contempo political discourse, the binders comment wouldn't even register on the outrage scale. The Romney campaign should resuscitate the binders moment on purpose, to shame the media when they come up later him.

Remember when they said this about me? Voters would ringlet their eyes correct along with him.

The aforementioned would exist truthful of the Russia line. In fact, various facets of the mainstream media accept already begun conceding that they were wrong to spring on Romney for daring to name Putin as a bigger global threat than al-Qaida. "It's time to admit it: Hand Romney was right well-nigh Russia," wrote CNN's Chris Cilizza in a recent article. "Romney Was Right All Forth, Democrats Admit," observed The Telegraph. "Romney was Right Nearly Putin," said The Atlantic's McKay Coppins.

In his interview with Coppins for The Atlantic slice, Romney showed characteristic magnanimity to his old foes, spiking the football only slightly — a rarity in today's politics. "I'm pleased that more people recognize how nifty the peril is of an emboldened Russia," he said. "Simply I don't think that, by whatsoever means, I was the only person who saw Russia's intent."

Romney also fabricated clear that while Russia was a serious threat equally far back every bit the early 2010s, today the U.S. has an even greater geopolitical threat: China.

"Conspicuously, today, Prc is a greater threat to our security and our economic vitality," he said, and rightly so.

While his demeanor could not be more different from the ex-president's, Romney is withal a conservative Republican with a conservative voting record. He will advance a Republican agenda, merely he will practise so free of the considerable baggage that weighs down Trump. He will also work across the aisle — something badly missing in Washington.

Unfortunately, Trump seems likely to run for president again. Later on the madness of Jan. 6, the GOP had one chance to rid themselves of Trump forever — impeachment and removal — and if more Republicans had possessed the courage to follow Romney's lead, the one man who could ensure Biden's reelection would have been prohibited from making another become of information technology.

Senator Manus Romney, R-Utah, with married woman Ann property the Bible, is sworn into office by Vice President Mike Pence in the Old Senate Bedchamber in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2019.

Cheryl Diaz Meyer, for the Deseret News

Instead, political party leadership failed to act, and now Trump is once over again the political party's de facto leader.

"Nosotros did it twice, and we'll practise it once more," Trump said at the Conservative Political Action Briefing in Orlando, Florida, final month, suggesting that he had actually won in 2020. "We're going to be doing it again a third time."

Defeating Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries volition be a nigh incommunicable task, even if anyone could be persuaded to attempt. In all likelihood, the nomination is his if he wants it.

More than's the pity.

It's within the realm of possibility that Trump defeats Biden in 2024: Modern U.S. presidential elections are usually close, given how evenly split up the country is — with the Democrats' numbers reward canceled out by structural Republican forcefulness in the most consequential swing states.

Almost any other Republican would stand a better chance against Biden, however, and Romney — and Romney lonely — has the take a chance to win decisively and usher in a new and more than united brand of politics.

A saner Republican Party would think twice before blowing it.

Robby Soave is a senior editor of Reason magazine and author of "Tech Panic: Why We Shouldn't Fear Facebook and the Future." His views are his own.

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Source: https://www.deseret.com/2022/3/10/22970330/perspective-romney-2024-the-third-times-a-charm-mitt-romney-for-president

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