Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who failed to win the GOP Presidential nomination in 2008, is on a book tour for his new work, which is seen as the prelude to his Presidential candidacy in 2012.
Already believing that Romney is the Republican party’s best bet against President Obama in 2012, the image that Romney left at the National Press Club appearance this afternoon was a good one.
While of course Romney attacked President Obama on both economic and foreign policy, he also made two statements worthy of note.
He was asked if the United States should be considered a Christian nation, and he responded by saying that of course the Judeo-Christian values of honor, family, home, loyalty, etc. have had an important impact on our history, but at the same time we are also affected by other religious values of other faiths, and that it would not be correct to call us a Christian nation. That statement made the author feel very reassured, as we are NOT a Christian nation, but at the most a nation with a heavy majority of people who are born to one Christian sect or another. Romney made it clear that we were not designed to promote one particular view of God on the nation at large. Coming from a Mormon, who will have trouble, unfortunately, gaining support from evangelical Christians who distrust the Mormon church, it is a statement that makes one feel comfortable that his goal is NOT to promote theocracy in America.
Romney also said that he is a conservative (although his record in Massachusetts belies that), but he stated that the goal of government should not be to go too far to the Left OR too far to the Right in making government policy. This statement reassures those who do not want a dramatic swing to the Right, and makes Romney, despite whatever rhetoric he might utilize, seem to be an ultimate centrist or moderate if he were to win the White House, a view that the author has long believed.
Romney has the potential to bring the Republican party back to the center of American politics, but of course the rightward tilt of the GOP in Congress and the growing influence of the Tea Party Movement could very well become a barrier to his having the chance to gain the Republican nomination.
If the Republicans were smart, and they probably are not so, they would nominate Romney as having the best chance to be a strong opponent of President Obama, and who would likely be a mainstream, acceptable President were he to triumph in the election of 2012.