Mitt Romney's Second Try
Jules Witcover

June 13, 2011

There's an old axiom in politics, often proved wrong, that a presidential candidate, like true love in the song, is lovelier or at least better the second time around. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney certainly must hope so.

As he formally declared his bid for the 2012 Republican nomination in New Hampshire yesterday (Thursday), Romney was counting on a fresh start to erase impressions of his failed attempt in 2008, in which he offered no serious challenge to Sen. John McCain, himself going around the track a second time after losing the 2000 nomination to George W. Bush.

Romney must also deal with some new beefs against him, foremost among them that, as governor, he offered a state health-care insurance plan that proved to be an inexact model for the one President Obama pushed through in 2010. Romney now opposes what is widely disparaged as Obamacare in GOP ranks, leaving himself open to taunts of flip-flopping.

The allegation is a particularly hazardous one for Romney because in his first presidential try he never was able to establish a clear political persona or profile, and was seen essentially as a successful businessman of murky political bearings. Regarded as a moderate in a very liberal state, his efforts to move more distinctly into the conservative mainstream of his party have made him a bit of an uncertain trumpet.

In an effort to combat critics who accuse him of having flip-flopped on his own health care plan, which like Obama's included mandated participation, Romney has elected to stick to his guns. He says his Massachusetts plan was right for his state but wouldn't work as a one-size-fits-all model for the whole country.

The second Romney presidential campaign appears to be a more focused one than the first, with some veterans like Eric Fehrnstrom, a longtime press spokesman and adviser, but also many campaign newcomers in the key primary states like New Hampshire, where Romney won in 2008 but stalled thereafter.

In terms of fundraising, he is far ahead this year of any of the other declared or still-exploring Republican hopefuls, having recently collected commitments for $10 million in a single day push. That showing probably has been a major reason why the political community is dubbing him the frontrunner, albeit a shaky one.

That distinction is a dubious one, making the candidate so identified a target for other contenders and putting the frontrunner under greater scrutiny, particularly now that he is a declared entry in the presidential race. His own father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, was briefly rated the frontrunner ahead of Richard Nixon in 1968, but he withered under heavy questioning about where he stood on the Vietnam War and dropped out just before the first primary in New Hampshire.

Nixon that year won the presidency in his second try with much heavier baggage as "Tricky "Dick" than Mitt Romney is toting this time around. But Nixon benefited from a severe split in the Democratic Party over the war; Romney, if nominated, would face a united opposition behind Obama. Since Nixon's comeback, four other Republicans have won their party's nomination on a second try -- Ronald Reagan, the first George Bush, Bob Dole and McCain -- but only the first two were elected.

Perhaps Romney's position right now most resembles that of another former Massachusetts governor who on the strength of impressive fundraising in a relatively weak field won his party's nomination in 1988. That would be Michael Dukakis, who never developed a winning persona to go along with his image as a capable administrator.

Dukakis capped his campaign with a cold and unemotional defense of the death penalty when asked in a debate if he would seek it if someone raped and killed his wife. Romney certainly would handle any such question better, and be able to hold his own in the present boring GOP field. But the question is how he would stack up against the dazzle of Obama.

Romney's task is not to show passion, but to sell his business experience as the candidate best able to extricate the country from its economic doldrums. Right now, the sluggish outlook favors that unglamorous approach, but he must present a more persuasive roadmap than either he or his party has yet offered.

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