Willard Mitt Romney is a man who has it all. A vast personal
fortune, a successful private career, a perfect family life, a
sharp mind, a charismatic personality, and he is very easy on the
eyes (heck, even his name has a touch of stardust about it). So
why does 64-year old Romney continue to struggle to capture the
hearts and minds of the Republican heartland?
His poll numbers have consistently hovered in the 23-25% region,
and despite the short term hiccups caused by the mini-surges of
Bachmann, Perry and now Cain, his support base seems to have held
pretty solid over the past two years. His critics charged that
his greatest strength, the ability to build a consensus from
diverging factions, is also his biggest weakness. He appears to
be intent on pleasing everyone, which lends an appearance of him
being a flip-flop on his stances. This characteristic was used in
devastating fashion in 2007/08 by Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson
and John McCain to derail his campaign.
Perhaps a better way to look at the quarter billion dollar man is
through his own eyes, that of a financial investor. Mitt hedges
his position across a broad portfolio, which, while preventing
the chance of a mega payday, also drastically reduces the chances
of a catastrophic loss. In other words, he doesn’t believe in
putting all of his eggs in a single basket. Instead, the
grandfather of fourteen is intent on keeping hypothetical baskets
of varying sizes to hypothetically fit as wide a spectrum as
possible of the hypothetical egg demographics.
Cognizant of this perceived vulnerability, Mitt has adopted a
very organized and low-keyed strategy for this nomination cycle.
He has chosen to skip all the straw polls and remain in the
shadows of his rivals, and only making controlled media
appearances. Mitt remembers very clearly how brightly his star
shone in the 2008 race, and how quickly it faded as well. He has
revealed his hand only several times the past year, and Rick
Perry unfortunately, appears to bear the majority of those
excursions.
Former advisor to President George W. Bush, and 2008 Republican
nominee John McCain, Mark McKinnon, concurs, stating,
"Romney
is playing things very methodically and deliberatively. I think
he understands the physics of this game very well now and is
carefully calibrating his approach to 2012."
Mike Huckabee is the perfect example of what a conservative
republican candidate should stand for and a large portion of
social conservatives still support him. Huckabee is a staunch
opponent of gay marriage, gun control, racism and
antisemitism.
Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas who claimed victory
in the 2008 Iowa Caucus but ultimately finished second to John
McCain in the 2008 republican primaries nomination. He was
ridiculed for his reluctance to bow out of the race even as it
was evident that he could not win. Following the loss he was
quoted as saying "I'm not ruling anything out for the future, but
I'm not making any specific plans".
In late November 2009, Mike Huckabee said that a 2012
presidential bid "is less likely rather than more likely just
because I would have to see that the Republicans would be willing
to unite behind me." He also says it's far too early to say what
he will do and that the November 2010 congressional election
results will affect his decision.
Mike Huckabee has a strong showing in the extremely early 2012
election polls. According to most of the popular network and
cable news polls, Huckabee is leading amongst Republicans and has
the strongest showing when matched against Barack Obama.
Another consideration for his 2012 nomination bid, according to
Huckabee, is the status of his weekly TV show on Fox News Channel
and it seems as though Mike is happy at the moment by spreading
his word through this national platform.
