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Larry D. Moore CC BY-SA 3.0
I doubt that Governor Romney would succeed. But he would, if he were somehow elected, make a very good president.
He’s not as conservative as I am. But he’s far more conservative than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
And he’s a good man. Honest. Competent. An adult.
A third-party candidacy, though, would probably fail. Even Teddy Roosevelt fell short when he attempted to regain the presidency on a third-party ticket.
Another possible scenario, of course, would be a deadlocked Republican convention in which, with neither Trump nor either of the other remaining candidates having gained the nomination on the first ballot, the delegates ultimately turn to someone with name recognition who could mount a national campaign on short notice.
Mitt Romney fits that description.
Still, the Trumpists would probably bolt the party in that case, feeling that their man had been robbed. (They’re nothing if not angry.) And that would elect Hillary Clinton.
But giving the nomination to Donald Trump will very likely give Hillary Clinton the White House, as well. He’s an extraordinarily rich target — on his own economic and business record, his authoritarianism, his disrespect for the Constitution and human rights, his dishonesty, his misogyny, his amorality, his vulgarity, and so forth — and the Democrats will destroy him in the general election campaign.
Amazingly, one of the worst presidential candidates in recent memory, the widely mistrusted and quite uncharismatic Hillary Clinton, a woman of few if any independent achievements deserving of the Democratic nomination, is now a virtual shoe-in for the presidency. Republican primary voters are offering the White House to her as an unearned gift.
Still, it’s interesting to see some out there — Reihan Salam is a conservative writer associated with National Review — considering Governor Romney as an (admittedly unlikely) alternative:
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