Ex-Romney Campaign Chair: I'm Done With Mitt

Ex-Romney Campaign Chair: I'm Done With Mitt
A key Romney '08 campaigner jumps ship, saying he can’t handle the candidate's ever-changing persona.

— By Andy Kroll

In the 2012 presidential race, New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary is make-or-break for Mitt Romney, and to win it, Romney's campaign will need the savviest operatives it can find. But Team Romney will have to go without one key player: Bruce Keough. The New Hampshire Republican who oversaw Romney's 2008 campaign in the Granite State says he's no longer sure what Romney stands for.

In an interview with Mother Jones, Keough, a businessman, says he declined an offer join Romney's 2012 effort and instead is sizing up other potential candidates, including Indiana governor Mitch Daniels and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. A former gubernatorial candidate in New Hampshire, Keough says Romney's wishy-washy political identity and inability to stake out firm, consistent positions as a candidate were the reasons for his decision to cut ties with Romney. "He struggled with that in the last campaign," Keough explains, "and to some extent I think he's still struggling with it."

Keough isn't the only one who thinks Romney has an identity problem. In early March, the former Massachusetts governor gave a major speech at a Lincoln Day dinner in New Hampshire. His performance was later dubbed "Romney 3.0." The first version, or Romney 1.0, was the candidate who successfully ran for governor in 2002 as a social moderate who touted his business acumen. Then, in the 2008 presidential race, Romney moved to the right, especially on hot-button social issues like abortion and stem cell research. That was Romney 2.0. And finally there's Romney 3.0, the latest iteration, a business-centric candidate willing to lose the necktie and hang out at NASCAR races.

It's this ever-changing persona that soured Keough on Romney. "I don't think the voters are looking for somebody who's going to be recasting himself," he says. "They want somebody who's been true to a certain set of political ideals for a while." Which isn't to say that Keough completely disagrees with Romney. He tempers his criticism by saying Romney "has been strong at times" and has "a lot of assets as a candidate." Still, Keough adds, Romney "manages to say things that cause people to think, 'Wait a second: I thought I knew him, and now I'm not so sure.' I think he can be successful. But I don't think he will be successful if he runs his campaign like he did in 2008." (Romney's exploratory committee did not respond to a request for comment.)

More:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/mitt-romney-new-hampshire-keough-2012

Poor Mitt.
:rofl:

I used to have a list of conflicting quotes he has uttered
that were laugh out loud crazy.

I haven't been able to find it lately.

Almost as many conflicting statements as the bible!

Ted had a killer line: "I am pro-choice. My opponent is multiple choice."

I didn't realize there was a full moon out there.

Distancing onesself from Romney or Palin is anything but insane.

You've got to be the nominee. YOU JUST GOTTA.

All you have to do is listen to him 5 minutes and you can tell he's completely full of shit.

Could have fooled me.