Despite ruling out running for president, Mitt Romney said his family is still pressuring him to throw his hat into the ring. Romney made this known at the Aspen Institute earlier this week while speaking with CBS News’ John Dickerson (via The Hill):
“My wife and kids wanted me to run again this time,” he said during a discussion with John Dickerson at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “I got an email from one of my sons yesterday, saying, ‘You gotta get in, Dad. You gotta get in.’”But the 2012 GOP nominee does not think that he’ll have much success without the full support of his party.
“I don’t think an independent candidate can win,” he said, adding that he’s not comfortable with the idea of rallying supporters around a campaign that’s sole objective is to stop another candidate — in this case, Donald Trump.
Romney, who has run for president twice, also didn’t want to subject his family to the hardships of another campaign.
Well, I guess we can applaud Mitt for sticking to his original decision to stay out of this race. It’s too late for a serious independent challenge at this point to due ballot access and the mere notion that Independent presidential candidacies are unsuccessful. Nevertheless, they can create headaches for the parties in the way Ross Perot probably cost Bush 41 his 1992 re-elect; something that the former president is still sour about.
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Romney may be more likable to the establishment, but he’s run twice and lost twice. The train has left the station, and he knows it. Romney knows that it’s not enough to just be anti-Trump. An independent candidacy will do nothing but help usher Hillary Clinton into the White House. Besides failing to clinch the presidency twice, he appears to have no appetite as being known as the guy who also helped Hillary become president. For now, anti-Trump Republicans have to recognize that they lost, what they should’ve done to stop Trump should’ve been executed many months ago, and that they can either stay home or vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson.
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