If former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ends up winning the Republican presidential nomination, one suspects Newsweek editors might forget to repeat the following assessment in their profiles:
Orlando was a reminder that Romney, who lost his lead in the polls as soon as Perry entered the race, is a more capable politician than pundits tend to acknowledge. He graduated from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School at the same time. He ran Bain & Co., a topnotch consulting firm, and founded Bain Capital, its prestigious private-equity spinoff. He saved the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. He was, by most accounts, a successful governor in Massachusetts, shepherding an intelligent health-care-reform package with clear conservative roots through a deeply liberal legislature. And compared with Perry, who criticized him during the debate for favoring “the social programs from the standpoint of he was for standing up for Roe versus Wade before he was against, verse, Roe versus Wade,” the man is practically Cicero on the stump.
For now, of course, that passage is a useful tool for Newsweek to employ in its bid to sink the candidacy of Texas Gov. Rick Perry or any other popular conservative who bolts to the top of the Republican presidential field.
