If this Etch-a-Sketch episode turns out to be a Sherman bowtie in the rails down the track in front of the Romney Inevitability Express, I'll be thrilled. The problem is every bit as bad as described by Paul Gigot -- in a rare signed editorial -- and the establishmentarian Peggy Noonan -- who manages to give good advice to all the candidates.
In fact, it's far, far worse. Romney simply has no core political beliefs. If one caricatured him as W. C. Fields' drunk, saying, "A man's gotta believe in something; I believe I'll have another run at the Presidency," no one would be sure it wasn't a direct quote.
It shouldn't be hard for a businessman like Romney to believe in the right things -- less government regulation, lower spending, lower taxes, and more individual economic liberty -- but Mitt doesn't really believe in any of the above. It's not that he dislikes those ideas, it's just that he dislikes all ideas. He believes in nothing at all except that it's time to run again.
As Noonan implies, he would be a terrible candidate, constantly waffling, like Bob Dole and John Kerry, so he would be a terrible choice for the Republican nomination, mostly because he would kill our chances of burying American progressivism once and for all.
I will not stop hoping that the Republican party does not nominate him.
