DBWI: A more conservative Mitt Romney?

I know this might be ASB but suppose Mitt Romney was a conservative Tea Party politician instead of the moderate who was governor of Massachusetts (2003-2011).

In his two terms as governor, Romney stuck to the moderate, socially liberal beliefs that he campaigned on. He stuck to his pro-choice views on abortion and proved to be more pro-gay rights than Ted Kennedy. He did sign the law in 2003 allowing gays to marry. Last year, his speech at the Log Cabin Republican dinner in Boston was sold out.

Of course, his greatest accomplishment was the health care reform dubbed Romneycare (or as the Tea Party called it "Obamneycare") which resulted in health insurance coverage for every man, woman and child in Massachusetts. On education, the number of public schools in the state increased by 20 percent.

Unfortunately, his record as governor went nowhere with conservatives who vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses. After Super Tuesday, Romney dropped out (only Ron Paul had fewer votes).

Had Romney governed as a conservative and won the Republican nomination this year, how would he fare against President Obama?
 
Probably worse off. Romney DID have plenty of challengers to the right of him in the primaries, and they all lost despite conservatives grumbling about it. I think he does a good job at appealing to independents and disaffected Obama voters as is, then say if he was like Gingrich or Santorum.
 
If he had governed as a conservative in Massachusetts, I question that he would have been considered a viable candidate for President. Governing as a conservative in Massachusetts is a good way to lose reelection, and without his compromises with the Democrats in the legislature he would have had far less to show for his time in office. Possibly no Romneycare? An overridden veto on gay marriage? He based much of his appeal on his moderation and ability to work across the aisle, and the results he achieved by doing that. It's like removing Ron Paul's foreign policy or civil liberties stances; without those, he'd have no national prominence to begin with.

Of course, he could have governed as a moderate and tried to run as a conservative, but then he'd be characterized as even worse flip-flopper than Kerry.

EDIT: Speaking as a Democrat, thank God he didn't win the nomination; he was the only member of that field that had a chance of unseating Obama. Perry is going down in flames.
 

NothingNow

Banned
I think his father might've seriously disowned him. George Romney never got on well with the far right, and his spat with Nixon was legendary. If Mitt ended up veering rightward after the election, he'd have seen that as a betrayal, and taken it very poorly. It was bad enough Mitt had been a corporate raider for a while before "repenting" as he put it, but that might've been the straw that broke the Man's back.
Mitt might've been able to crawl out from his father's shadow, and that might've helped him a bit.

Still, it probably wouldn't have been more dignified than being Obama's choice for Secretary of Commerce after Gary Locke. He's done some good work with that, prosecuting fraud, and unsafe products, (alongside the Consumer Product Safety Commission.)
But he's the guy who put the import bans on Chinese Drywall in place, so I've got to admire him for that.
 
I know this might be ASB but suppose Mitt Romney was a conservative Tea Party politician instead of the moderate who was governor of Massachusetts (2003-2011).

In his two terms as governor, Romney stuck to the moderate, socially liberal beliefs that he campaigned on. He stuck to his pro-choice views on abortion and proved to be more pro-gay rights than Ted Kennedy. He did sign the law in 2003 allowing gays to marry. Last year, his speech at the Log Cabin Republican dinner in Boston was sold out.

Of course, his greatest accomplishment was the health care reform dubbed Romneycare (or as the Tea Party called it "Obamneycare") which resulted in health insurance coverage for every man, woman and child in Massachusetts. On education, the number of public schools in the state increased by 20 percent.

Unfortunately, his record as governor went nowhere with conservatives who vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses. After Super Tuesday, Romney dropped out (only Ron Paul had fewer votes).

Had Romney governed as a conservative and won the Republican nomination this year, how would he fare against President Obama?

Ron Paul had the second most votes and delegates behind Perry. Also remember Ron Paul swept the Midwest. There's talk of a Perry/Walter Johnson (a Paul ally) ticket. Obama will be toast.
 
Ron Paul had the second most votes and delegates behind Perry. Also remember Ron Paul swept the Midwest. There's talk of a Perry/Walter Johnson (a Paul ally) ticket. Obama will be toast.

Obama was in trouble until Perry opened his mouth. Now he's up by what, twelve points nationwide? That's not something even a top notch running mate is going to fix. For their own sake the GOP should run someone who isn't "Bush without the brains" as one Republican Governor said (anonymously, for obvious reasons). Hell, Romney will only be 69 next election and seems to be in good health (the guy doesn't look a day after 55), so he might try again.
 
Obama was in trouble until Perry opened his mouth. Now he's up by what, twelve points nationwide? That's not something even a top notch running mate is going to fix. For their own sake the GOP should run someone who isn't "Bush without the brains" as one Republican Governor said (anonymously, for obvious reasons). Hell, Romney will only be 69 next election and seems to be in good health (the guy doesn't look a day after 55), so he might try again.

Yeah. And to make matters worse for the Republicans, Gary Johnson's popularity has been soaring these past few months. Nate Silver is considering even giving Johnson the state of Montana on the Now-Cast if things keep going in his direction. And polls are indicating as much as 20% support in Arizona as well; many of the more moderate Republicans there aren't happy with Teabaggin' Jan Brewer and her nitwiti-ness and that they'd rather throw themselves behind a guy who they know won't win the election but whose values they support.
Even here in Texas, Johnson's starting to make an impact.

All I can say is, the GOP is pretty much toast at this point, and probably would have been even without Perry's enormous gaffe back in July. The only thing I'm worried about now is voter suppression: unfortunately, it looks like the Virginia law may end up passing in a couple weeks barring some more serious outcry from Democrats.
 
OOC: This just got ASB *sigh* and it had so much potential. :(

OOC: What do you mean? Gary Johnson does have quite a bit of potential, btw. Given that the POD appears to be around '07, he might be able to secure a significantly bigger base than he did OTL. 5 years can change a lot in that regard, and if Ron Paul gets screwed over, like what happened IOTL(though not as part of any conspiracy, contrary to the opinions of some Paul supporters!), many Paulites might just flock over to the Johnson camp before you could say "Bazinga!".
 
Top