By Thomas Hoffman
After breezing through the primary, a Mitt Romney victory in the Utah Senate race appears inevitable. When Romney ran for President in 2012, Bill Maher was so desperate to thwart him; he donated a million dollars to President Obama’s re-election campaign. After President Trump’s election, Maher lamented that he would gladly serve up that million dollars straight to Mitt Romney himself in order to prevent a Trump presidency. Former Vice President Biden has encouraged him to run for the Senate. Be careful what you wish for Bill Maher. Be careful what you suggest, Mr. Vice President. Mitt Romney may well not be the centrist many believe he is.
Biden and Maher may be under the delusion that Mitt Romney is really the Mitt Romney of 1994, and that the conservative agenda he has spent the last ten years supporting is simply an effort to cater to the far-right. Even some Obama supporters remained convinced that Romney was the same centrist that he appeared to be in 1994 and 2002. There already talk of certain republicans challenging Trump in 2020, assuming Trump himself seeks re-election. If Romney captures a Senate seat, this would certainly fuel his chances of a successful third run for President. It would put him ahead of other potential republican challengers.
There was a joke during the 2012 campaign that Mitt Romney is not a human. The pun suggested that he is in fact a hologram from The Stepford Wives programmed to tell a political audience whatever they want to hear. As he goes from appealing to Massachusetts to the entire country to Utah, that hologram is going to have to make some changes. It is safe to assume in order to appeal to the Utah audience, the hologram may well step out of its “centrist mode.” However, it is possible the whole point of the Senate run is to set the stage for a 2020 presidential run, in which case he may well remain in centrist mode.
Ann Coulter once wrote that “among Romney’s positives is the fact that he has a demonstrated ability to trick liberals into voting for him. He was elected governor of Massachusetts — one of the most liberal states in the union — by appealing to Democrats, independents and suburban women.”
Ann Coulter is right. Romney can appeal to independents and Democrats. And Coulter is right, Romney is tricking them. As Governor, Romney vetoed a stem cell research bill. And who can forget the ride his dog Seamus took on the roof of his car? What kind of centrist tells a wheelchair bound medical marijuana patient that he does not support medical marijuana? Mitt Romney has spoken out against gay marriage on a number of occasions. He has also spoken out against civil unions. He voiced his opposition to LGBT adoption in front of a South Carolina audience. He went from reducing the size of the Department of Education to supporting No Child Left Behind. During a 2012 presidential debate, Romney criticized the idea of solar energy, perhaps to a bigger extent than Trump ever has. Still serious about that million dollars, Bill Maher? Romney’s bite is worse than his bark. Forgive the pun Seamus.
Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America – Mitt Romney, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73577113