by Mark Silva
"Mitt Romney doesn't have a job for the first time in his adult life,'' writes our friend Glenn Johnson, a political writer who has followed the wanderings of the former Massachusetts governor for some time. "That hardly means he's not working.
"In ways both subtle and overt,'' Johnson notes, the Republican who sought his party's presidential nomination last year is "building toward a 2012 White House campaign by judiciously engaging and disengaging with the national debate.''
Among the overt ways, the Associated Press' Johnson writes: Romney is writing a book. Based on the 1960s tome The American Challenge by Frenchman Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, it will attempt to shake American economic and political complacency.
Among the overt: Speaking at a Chicago fundraiser on Tuesday for a prospective state treasurer candidate. (State Sen. Dan Rutherford, who was Romney's Illinois camapign chairman, has not officially announced for the 2010 race for state treasurer nomination but is pursuing it, in part because incumbent Democratic Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has formed an exploratory committee for the 2010 Senate seat of Roland Burris.)
Romney is headlining a fundraiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington on Wednesday and keynote-speaking at a fundraising dinner for Republicans in New York City on Thursday.
Among the more subtle ways, as Johnson notes of his interview with Romney on the day that he was packing up his ski house in Utah: Romney is divesting himself of some of the "excess real estate that brought ridicule to John McCain last fall'' - reminding us of the seven, or was it eight, homes that the 2008 GOP nominee owned (he couldn't recall.)
(File photo of Mitt Romney above by Steve Yeater / Associated Press)
The ex-Bay State governor, who lives in La Jolla, Calif., also is selling his old Massachusetts home.
"This is a quiet time," Romney said in an interview with the AP's Johnson. "At this stage, running again is way beyond the horizon. This year is working on a book. The next year will be helping in Republican campaigns. And I don't know what the year after that will bring."
Republican strategist Mary Matalin, for one, has no trouble envisioning a second Romney campaign: "There's nothing like going around the track once to broaden the field. He has an intellectual base. He has a politics-faith base. He certainly has an economic base.
'If there's anything illogical about it, it's that he -- and not some of the other people who may appeal more strongly to one of those elements -- has the greatest potential to pull all those factions together."
Comments
"excess real estate that brought ridicule to John McCain last fall''
Mittens certainly is serious if he is going to sell in this market.
Posted by: bill r. | March 30, 2009 3:18 PM
So Mitt the Flip-Flopper thinks that if he sells off all of his stuff before 2012 we won't notice that he's a multimillionare?....ha ha ha!
When I look at the GOP bench for 2012 (Platic Mitt, Pageant Queen Palin, Kennth "the page Jindal, Mikey Huckleberry etc) and I hear the GOPer's screaming about how they're going to retake the White House in 2012, it makes me laugh at them even more than I already do now.
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQJ9Xp0xxU
Posted by: Hulk SMASH! | March 30, 2009 4:22 PM
A super-rich Mormon who made all his money by advising businesses on how to scam the system? With all his 'business' and 'market' knowledge how come he wasn't warning everyone about the Republican de-regulation driven economic collapse that Obama is trying to fix?? Evangelicals won't vote for a Mormon, no way. All he's got going for him is his money and his hair. Spare us.
Posted by: thebob.bob | March 30, 2009 5:30 PM
Romney is the only person with the experience and the turnaround skills to get the US out of its economic mess. He did it at the Olympics, in business, and as governor of Massachusetts. I want him as our president.
Posted by: kathy | March 30, 2009 6:30 PM
You'd think it'd be a no brainer to choose a financial expert like Romney over a community organizer like Obama to get out of this recession... But... according to some of the comments on here apparently some people don't really care about setting the country straight. How sad.
Posted by: Scott | March 30, 2009 9:05 PM
Romney has the skill set and proven successful experience unlike the community instigator that's ruining everything he touches while shredding our Constitution.
Posted by: The laughing liberal | March 30, 2009 11:21 PM
thebob.bob, the deregulation was Democrat driven, pushed through by the Clinton congress just before Bush the second took office.
Romney is amazing. I've met him in person and I think America will be ready for him in 2012 when they are clear that Obama's strategy is to run up tax payer credit cards--a short term solution that will cost us dearly in the long run!
We could see America fall to third world status in our lifetimes, just because we want to "ease the pain" now.
If you love your country, you will pray for Mitt in 2012. I don't think anyone else can handle the Obama crisis, as the aftermath may be known in years to come.
Posted by: Jed Merrill | March 31, 2009 1:34 AM
Maybe you Mitt fans should suggest to Romney to offer his help at the WH and put away the partisan politics for the good of the country. Oh, that's right, Steele said it's not in the GOP nature to do so.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | March 31, 2009 7:07 AM
They bought a house in La Jolla CA which they enjoy living in, now. That's where Romney was heading with his gear.
And you kids can cut the flip flopper routine, Obama has been doing the knee jerk and so was McCain all along. Grow up.
Posted by: thinkaboutit | March 31, 2009 9:11 PM
Mitt Romney's op-ed recommendation that Detroit go through bankruptcy, suggested as early as last year, is now an option that Obama is finally recommending. Romney's economic intuition is solid and polished. So sorry he's not at the helm at this difficult time.
Posted by: Pam Jensen | March 31, 2009 11:08 PM
Mitt is the man for the job.He can put America back on track. He is still very healthy and very ambitious. I personally think he will run in 2012 because of his love for America ,desire to serve and desire to protect the Contstitution. Everything about his lfe is so well structured ,family, work ethics, religous views. He lives to learn and because of it , is very intellegent and has a wealth of experience not only from books but by his capitolizing on the expierences and intelligences shared with him from others. I have had the opportunity to personally see him in action. For someone that has done so well , he is very selfless and the thing that stood out so much to me, was that he was the best listener you will ever meet .He is the real thing regardless of what others jealous of his dedication and success would like you to think.
Posted by: Leon | April 1, 2009 2:45 AM
i love mitt and i wish he is gonnabe the next president of the u.s.a
Posted by: abdulla nasser | April 1, 2009 3:02 PM