Mitt Romney's Identity Crisis Cost Him

As candidates have dropped out of the race 17people has taken different paths in discussing their campaigns and exits. Fred Thompson was ripped as one of the worst candidates ever, John Edwards was given big credit for a strong campaign and poignant message, and Rudy Giuliani was given unexpected credit for raising the issue that a moderate gets killed in primaries.

As for the candidacy of Mitt Romney I give the Republican Party a lot of credit for not buying this guys pathetic act. They avoided what Democrats were unable to in 2004with John Kerry, electing a guy who thought being President would be a good gid. A guy who would say anything,change any position to get there, except stand on his own principles. A great example of this is the following answer from an early Republican debate. I have seen some awful answers before but this one makes no sense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXz1beJe78I



While many will say that many religious voters would never vote for a Mormon and that cost him. Or that Romney spending so much money turned people off, think the core reason Romney went from frontrunner to loser is because he came off as a sell out.

It was laughable that this guy tried to run as the 'conservative candidate'. Mitt Romney was at best a 'born again Conservative' and his rebirth happened just in time to run for President.

On abortion, he all of a sudden 'saw the light' and reversed a 20+ year record of being pro-choice.

On guns, he bought himself a 'Lifetime' membership to the NRA after limiting gun rights while Governor.

On race, he pronounced loudly that he saw his father march with Martin Luther King, only to two days later say he didn't mean 'saw', but that he marched with him in spirit.

On the environment, he went from a forward thinking Governor who supported cap and trade to the protectionist, big business thinking corporate executive that wants to scare people out of making a commitment to the environment by saying their jobs will be lost in doing so.

He also did everything he could to backtrack from the healthcare plan passed in his state that insured everyone. Instead of embracing a plan that hopefully shows the nation a blueprint for better healthcare coverage, he slithered from it showing no courage in fear that his opponents would attack him for being too liberal.

Once it became clear that he was in trouble on the 'Evangelical Right' from Mike Huckabee in Iowa and on the 'NeoCon Right' from John McCain in New Hampshire, he launched a negative Ad Blitz that against both of them. The result was unifying the Republican field, including Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani against him. There are reports of emails between the campaign that said, 'anyone but him.'

In fact a story that after Huckabee won Iowa, he and McCain talked and Huckabee said, 'your turn to beat him now.' While Huckabee appeared a nice guy in debates and on the campaign trail his heavy handed campaign tactics and flip flopping whenever it was beneficial to him was the only unifying factor in the Republican party this nomination season.

All that aside, Mitt Romney is the latest example of a guy who wants to be an elected official because he thinks he deserves it. Maybe he wanted a good gig where people tell him how great he is, like John Kerry did. Or maybe it came from a sense of entitlement that comes from having a silver spoon from birth, like George Bush did.

Early in his campaign, John McCain tried to be what the 'base' of the Republican Party wanted him to be. It wasn't what he stood for and the result was his campaign appeared dead and he almost had toto drop out. McCain changed course, back to what he believed, and the result is he will be the nominee in one of the great comebacks in Republican political history.

Mitt Romney wanted to win at all costs, including his principles. In the process he cost himself his chance to win.