Politico is reporting that, if Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) decides to retire, Mitt Romney is not going to run to replace him:
On Wednesday the website UtahPolicy floated the likelihood that the 83-year old Utah Republican would retire and Romney would run to replace him. That prompted pushback from the GOP’s most senior senator, who is also in the line of presidential succession.
“I’ve talked to Mitt Romney. He’s not going to run for this seat. I would be glad for him if he would,” Hatch told reporters.
The Democratic presence in Utah is fairly small, as Clinton was walloped, winning only 27.5% of Utah voters (most of the rest went for either of the Republicans in the race, Trump and McMullin). Similarly, all the Senators and Representatives to Congress from Utah are also Republicans.
So is it too bad? His Presidential campaign was not a thing of beauty, as he was caught spouting off embarrassing GOP kant regarding the how welfare recipients will always vote. But I also recall that he was also the successful governor of Massachusetts, and his father the successful governor of Michigan. What does this mean to me? It means there’s a possibility that Mitt, for all his privilege & wealth, may have a clue there’s more to running a government than reading fringe websites and thinking there’s valuable information to be found there, or just apply principles learned in business and away you go.
He may have an idea of how to be responsible & successful at governance.
So, in the absence of a candidate obviously cognizant of the requirements of good government, there has to be some regret that someone who might have a smidgen of an idea of how to govern has decided not to run. And wonder at just which flake the GOP will choose to run to succeed Hatch.
