Do you think that Romney will be the de facto leader of the GOP

[vlyons]

He's certainly establishment GOP. I imagine that a lot of never-Trumpers see him as a welcome relief.

[Cary]

1. A cold, dead leader of a cold, dead party

[In It to Win It]

2. Nope, not even if Bitch Mitch leaves

[Iggo]

4. Nice post, Draymond. (n/t)

[Iggo]

3. Pshew! Pshew! Pshew!

[hlthe2b]

5. It will be interesting to see...Romney is no "blessing", but he might prove less difficult

to work with for Dems, than most of them. That said, I'd bet he'll look for ways to go with the R majority (Trumpists) as much as possible.

[vlyons]

6. I think he's 99% whatever Wall St wants

He can't be too pleased about the tariff war. Will be interesting to see how long before Trump starts insulting him.

[hlthe2b]

10. Yes... But how many are around to help him in any anti-tarriff battles?

[Scoopster]

7. No way.

Romney is a moderate, and moderates are an endangered species in the GOP. He'll be just another freshman that needs to fall in line with Yertle's "Whatever It Is I'm Against It" agenda.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Nope

The Republican Party would need to kick DT out before that is even a possibility. Even then, Romney has not demonstrated leadership.

[Wellstone ruled]

9. Watch for the White Knight run

for the White House.

[Andy823]

20. Exactly

And in order to be the "not like trump" candidate, he is going to have to show the rest of the country, those who are not Mormon, that he can work well with others, Democrats, to get things done. I don't know if he can do it, and if trump sees him as a threat in 2020, he will go after Romney with every ounce of hate he has. Could be interesting.

[Wellstone ruled]

23. Just watched how Utah is and will play out

after this Election Cycle. Sure pointing to the White Knight Scenario And for those who don't know what that is,Google.

[rurallib]

11. I believe he is still angling to be president

whether it be as an alternative to Donnie or for 2024. So I look for him to be 'non-controversial' as he can be.

[OnDoutside]

15. You'll never get the Trumpers voting for him.

[rurallib]

17. You are probably right.

I just think that Romney believes he was anointed by his god to be the first Mormon president. As such he will do whatever is in his power to make that happen.

Trumpers on the other hand - once their man is out of the picture (hopefully behind bars) - who knows what happens? Does Hannity pick up the faithful? I don't have a clue what will happen to them, but I don't think any current politician will pick up the crazies following Trump.

[OnDoutside]

19. I do agree that he would still want to be president but it would probably take an about turn of

where the trend is going i.e. a Democratic Presidential win on Nov 3rd, 2020 (when he will be heading to 74). That said, if Trump were to not run, then he's in with a shout, with his corporate connections, of the Rep nomination. We shouldn't forget either that the Evangelical hypocrites wouldn't fancy a mormon either....they much prefer someone like them

[vlyons]

22. That's true I forgot anout the Evangelicals

They would probably bring in the snake charmers to cast the devil out

[Garrett78]

12. The media will portray him as a moderate, which is absurd. This is how the Overton Window shifts.

Right wing extremism is normal/mainstream, the likes of Romney and Collins are middle of the road, and single-payer or affordable college is crazy/radical/extremist.

The Republican Party with a lot of help from the media has been able to move the Overton Window drastically rightward.

[Doodley]

13. He is their best chance to climb out of this bigoted hole they have fallen into.

[eleny]

14. I don't care so long as it's the Minority Leader

[Zambero]

16. Well, no

Romney could be considered the leader of the (shrinking) GOP "establishment" wing, but avid Trumpites will never forgive him for (correctly) characterizing Trump as a fraud and phony during the 2016 primary campaign.

[NurseJackie]

18. He's going to run for POTUS again.

[wishstar]

21. He will become the McCain of the Senate voicing distrust of Russians and dislike of Trump

Trump's base will turn on him as they turned against McCain

[lindysalsagal]

24. Nope. Only the mormons.

Christo-fascists don't like him.