Mitt Romney Will Not Run For President In 2016, So Please Stop Asking
Mitt Romney for President — again?
It seems with all the speculation on the Democrat side about whether Hillary Clinton will or won’t try for the Oval Office in two years, Republican pontificators are now wanting to get in on the action by speculating about their own 2012 presidential nominee.
However, this story, which keeps cropping up on blogs like the Washington Post, has no basis in fact.
In fact, CNN recently did a roundup of all the many ways that Romney has denied he’s considering a third campaign.
Here’s just a small sampling:
1. “I’m not running, and talk of a draft is kind of silly.”
— June 15, 2014, on NBC’s Meet the Press
2. “I’m far from a kingmaker. I’m just one of those that wants to keep the conversation going and fighting for things I think will make a difference for my 22 grandkids…I’m not running.”
— June 13, 2014, on Fox’s Your World with Neil Cavuto
3. “The unavailable is always the most attractive, right? That goes in dating as well.”
— June 13, 2014, to The Associated Press
4. “I’m thinking about the people who I want to see running for president…. I fully anticipate that I’ll be supporting one of them very vigorously.”
— March 23, 2014, on CBS’ Face the Nation
5. “I’m not running for president. We’ve got some very good people who are considering the race. And I’m looking forward to supporting someone who I think will have the best shot of defeating whoever it is the Democrats put up.”
— February 16, 2014, on NBC’s Meet the Press
6. “The answer is no, I’m not running for president in 2016. It’s time for someone else to take that responsibility and I’ll be supporting our nominee.”
— February 5, 2014, on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
7. “I’ve had my turn, I gave it two good shots, didn’t win and now it’s time for someone else to do it. I’m not running for president. I made that clear the morning after the last loss.”
— February 5, 2014, on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
8. “Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.”
— January 18, 2014, to the New York Times
9. “I loved it. But look, I want to make sure that we take the country in a different direction. I think that Chris Christie and Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, and the list goes on, have a much better chance of doing that, and so I will support one of them as they become the nominee.”
— January 18, 2014, to the New York Times
Hopefully, we can now lay this one to rest. Mitt Romney is not running for President in 2016 (and presumably any other year), even though he’s apparently the frontrunner now.
So if not Romney, who? What do you think, readers? If the GOP wants a real shot at beating the Democratic presidential nominee (presumably Clinton), who should they pick?
[Image via Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com]
