Why is Mitt Romney Running?
Well, the inevitable is happening. After a long, hard fight, Mitt Romney is emerging as the Republican Party nominee. No huge surprise. But it is time for a Mitt reality check.
First, we can see rather clearly that Mitt Romney does not really enjoy this process. He is not a “from the gut” speaker who loves the stage. Second, Romney is not advancing any particular agenda that he feels strongly about. Indeed, more than once, it has come out that Mitt actually disagrees with aspects of his party’s platform. The most obvious example is health care. Another is fiscal austerity. But these are not the only ones. Third, it is not likely that he will defeat Barrack Obama in the general election.
So the question on my mind is why he is subjecting himself to such torture for no apparent reason? Phrasing the question this way gives us a clue. Whatever we may think about Romney, it is obvious that he is not stupid. So he probably has thought this through carefully and is aware of the above. So why suffer through the exercise? I don’t know. But I don’t think it is just ego or filial duty. And I don’t think it is because he has nothing else to do. I think there is another reason.
I wonder.
FOLLOW - The most likely reason is that Mitt is a gambler. He is not looking so much at current polls and opinions about what is happening now. He thinks that there could be an inflection point later that cannot now be foreseen. That inflection point could give the republican party nominee a shot at winning. So he is positioning himself (as painful as that might be) to get that chance. He believes that he could win, and he really wants to win — no matter what it takes. If true, that says something about the man that is both positive and negative.