Being a two-time loser in the presidential sweepstakes, you can understand why Mitt Romney wants no part of a third run for the White House. But the fact that he now appears to have been prescient on at least some foreign policy issues (notably Russia) seems to have led to a re-evaluation of the former Massachusetts Governor amongst Republican voters, but he maintains he's at still not thinking about another run in 2016.
"I'm not running. I'm not planning on running," Romney repeated to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday."There's no question in my mind that I think I'd have been a better president than President Obama has been. No question in my mind about that. And there are other good people who I'm sure will be able to lead the country in the future. I wish it were me."
With the president struggling in the middle of his second term, Romney had a target-rich environment to be the critic-in-chief, and he didn't disappoint if you were looking for pithy sound bites in this TV hit.
Though he says he won't run, his sense of pride erupted when asked by host Chris Wallace about whether he'd be a better president than Hillary Clinton.
"No question about that in my mind," he immediately replied, softening that declaration by saying "the American people may disagree with me."
"You've also got to have people who've actually run something," he said in giving his critique of Mrs. Clinton. "The government of the United States is the largest enterprise in the world. You watched a president who just doesn't understand how to make an administration work, how to interact with Congress, how to get things done. You have to have those things.
I don't think Hillary Clinton has that experience. And I look for instance at her record as secretary of state, look, her record is Barack Obama's record in foreign policy. And it's a disaster."
On Friday Romney penned an op-ed in theWashington Post where he blasted President Obama's foreign policy record, and he doubled down on those comments on Sunday morning, saying that the commander-in-chief is "out of touch with reality when it comes to what's happening in the world."
"But, look, he looked at Russia and thought that was a friend we should reset relations with. He looked at al Qaeda and said they're on the run. Just more recently, he looked at ISIS and said, oh, they're just the junior varsity. He looks at Iraq and says, hey, they're strong and able to care for themselves," Romney said. "Look, he is so out of touch with reality that he hasn't taken the action necessary to prevent very bad things from happening.
Although Romney appears determined not to make a third run for the White House, he's obviously aware of a recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll taken in Iowa that shows that the former Bain Capital executive dominates the GOP electorate when he's inserted into the poll, drawing 35 percent of the vote. The next closest candidate was "undecided," which took 10 percent of the vote.
But Wallace also threw in a brief video collage of some of Romney's lowest moments during the 2012 campaign to humble him a bit, including his infamous comment about the "47 percent" that was considered a huge, possibly game-changing moment of the campaign. That's when a South Florida waiter surreptitiously recorded Romney's speech to a group of fundraisers where he said there was 47 percent of the public "who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what."
When shown what he called " parade of horribles," he admitted he wasn't a perfect candidate, "but the reality is that the opposition did a very good job picking up on those mistakes and just beating the heck out of me, and I didn't do as good a job as I wish I would have, describing who I am to the American people."
"I'm not running. I'm not planning on running," Romney repeated to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday."There's no question in my mind that I think I'd have been a better president than President Obama has been. No question in my mind about that. And there are other good people who I'm sure will be able to lead the country in the future. I wish it were me."
With the president struggling in the middle of his second term, Romney had a target-rich environment to be the critic-in-chief, and he didn't disappoint if you were looking for pithy sound bites in this TV hit.
Though he says he won't run, his sense of pride erupted when asked by host Chris Wallace about whether he'd be a better president than Hillary Clinton.
"No question about that in my mind," he immediately replied, softening that declaration by saying "the American people may disagree with me."
"You've also got to have people who've actually run something," he said in giving his critique of Mrs. Clinton. "The government of the United States is the largest enterprise in the world. You watched a president who just doesn't understand how to make an administration work, how to interact with Congress, how to get things done. You have to have those things.
I don't think Hillary Clinton has that experience. And I look for instance at her record as secretary of state, look, her record is Barack Obama's record in foreign policy. And it's a disaster."
On Friday Romney penned an op-ed in theWashington Post where he blasted President Obama's foreign policy record, and he doubled down on those comments on Sunday morning, saying that the commander-in-chief is "out of touch with reality when it comes to what's happening in the world."
"But, look, he looked at Russia and thought that was a friend we should reset relations with. He looked at al Qaeda and said they're on the run. Just more recently, he looked at ISIS and said, oh, they're just the junior varsity. He looks at Iraq and says, hey, they're strong and able to care for themselves," Romney said. "Look, he is so out of touch with reality that he hasn't taken the action necessary to prevent very bad things from happening.
Although Romney appears determined not to make a third run for the White House, he's obviously aware of a recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll taken in Iowa that shows that the former Bain Capital executive dominates the GOP electorate when he's inserted into the poll, drawing 35 percent of the vote. The next closest candidate was "undecided," which took 10 percent of the vote.
But Wallace also threw in a brief video collage of some of Romney's lowest moments during the 2012 campaign to humble him a bit, including his infamous comment about the "47 percent" that was considered a huge, possibly game-changing moment of the campaign. That's when a South Florida waiter surreptitiously recorded Romney's speech to a group of fundraisers where he said there was 47 percent of the public "who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what."
When shown what he called " parade of horribles," he admitted he wasn't a perfect candidate, "but the reality is that the opposition did a very good job picking up on those mistakes and just beating the heck out of me, and I didn't do as good a job as I wish I would have, describing who I am to the American people."