Friday, January 6, 2012

Mitt Romney: John Kerry of 2012

Congratulations Mitt Romney, you’ve won the Iowa Caucus and stand poised for a crushing victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Your well on your way to becoming the 2012 version of John Kerry.

John Kerry won Iowa and New Hampshire, fending off a marginal challenge from John Edwards before feeding on a delegate buffet to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.

Turns out John Kerry was not very popular with moderate and independent voters and lost the general election to President Bush, despite his overwhelming support among Democratic primary and caucus goers.

This should raise alarm bells for Romney. I don’t see any current candidate who challenges Romney at the primary level, beyond a token state or two. This means that like John Kerry, he’ll rack up a huge number of delegates and win the nomination.

But Romney has a huge problem with the conservative wings of the party that question his conservative credentials. He was governor of Massachusetts, a state where extreme Republicans get eaten for lunch, if that’s a clue.

An uninspiring candidate will just as easily reelect an unpopular president, just ask John Kerry. That’s the road Romney risks traveling, if he can’t win over conservative voters.

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