Will Mitt Romney Jump In?

As Jeb Bush struggles to carry the establishment mantle, some wonder whether the time is right for Mitt.

So as the “establishment” candidate, Mr. Bush, is suddenly being viewed as circling the drain, the frantic call goes out to Mr. Romney to enter and save the day.

But Mr. Romney is not now and has never been exactly an “Eastern Establishment” candidate, to which Jeb Bush and his famous political family form and fulfill the archetype. He brings a somewhat different political ethic and conservative moral base to the Republican party, in my opinion, a heightened, seasoned and more mature sensibility and Republicans should be delighted to have him.

For it is the current conservative standard that is killing Jeb; a standard advanced to the apogee of provincial incompetence by brother W., sure to be fully outlined in Dick Cheney’s new book, “Exceptional: Why the world needs a powerful America.”

The rise of Mr. Trump brings a full repudiation of the Republican standard since the rise of the Brothers Bush. The provincialism and political cultism of this era withheld support for two runs to the presidency by Mr. Romney. While establishment conservatives were being exceptional to one another, Mr. Romney advanced by hook or by crook at a cost to himself of a rather large fortune. What a contrast to the day of Dwight Eisenhower and the post war conservatives. Mr. Eisenhower considered Romney patriarch, his father George Romney, Governor of Michigan, to be among the rare few qualified to seek the Presidency.

More here