The New Republic

Giuliani without the 9/11 credentials -- best description of Romney I've heard in a long time.

- rozenson

February 4, 2008 at 12:56am

Shrum has a poorly phrased point:  By remaking him into what would be the GOP mold, and turning his back on everything he'd done, Romney essentially doomed himself.  The question is, was he doomed from the start:  Could Massachuseets Mitt the technocrat won the nomination?  He could have soft pedaled his shifts on social issues and run on competence, but leaping whole hog into being the Culture Warrior failed miserably.  I think that's what Shrummie's getting at.

- Crock1701

February 4, 2008 at 12:58am

Any Dem who pays the slightest attention to Shrum deserves to lose. The Rom-bot could still make a comeback in California.

- Robert Powell

February 4, 2008 at 5:09am

Yeah, I share the Shrum-antipathy, but to be fair, you had to take what the guy was saying in context. He was explaining why Romney was getting his ass kicked, and the reason he's getting his ass kicked is that he's so obviously a phony and a panderer. If he had held to his positions and run on his CEO and gubernatorial experience as a "maverick" Repug, he would have lost the evangelical and hard-right vote, but he might have captured independents and even some crossovers. The way he played it, he STILL lost the evangelicals and hard-right, because they saw through him, and the independents--for the same reasons.

But yeah, I agree, please keep Shrum the hell away from my candidate, whoever he or she may be.

- sullydog

February 4, 2008 at 6:07am

Shrum has a point. I agree that the old Romney would have been a formidable, impressive candidate, but probably not in 2008. There were already two candidates (Giuliani and McCain) fighting for moderate Republican voters and he probably would have gotten crowded out. Maybe in 2012 he can change all his positions back and run as Romney 3.0.

- BHLnyc

February 4, 2008 at 10:42am

6-11-2011:  In an unexpected move today, former Massachusetts governor and failed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has announced that he will seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2012.  In his press conference today, flanked by John Murtha, Dave Chapelle, and Fran Leibowitz, Romney declared his "full and enthusiastic support for core Democratic values."  "I am the only true liberal," he said to a somewhat bemused group of reporters.  When questioned, Romeny was tight-lipped about his decades as a Republican, including when he ran for his party's presidential nomination in 2008.  "I changed my mind," he said, "is that wrong?"

Last year Romney's book "Shape-Shifter:  How to Escape Definition and Avoid Standing for Anything for Too Long" was on the NY Times bestseller list for three months.

- ironyroad

February 4, 2008 at 11:26am

I am taking up a collection to put Shrum on the International space station until after the election, with all radio contact terminated. The only thing I am worried is that the Russians will grow so tired of him they will shove him out the airlock. In their haste to do it, they might damage the station.

- blackton

February 4, 2008 at 3:02pm