Mitt Is In (Again)!

My ode to New England.  Concord, MA

By this time today, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will have already announced his intentions to run as a candidate for the Republican Party Presidential nomination. No longer a possible-wannabe-Presidential-nominee-contender, but a full-fledged CONTENDER. I love the following imagery, from the Boston Globe:

STRATHAM, N.H. — Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is today publicly launching his second bid for the presidency with an outdoor speech at farm in the lead primary state of New Hampshire.

Against the backdrop of a barn and farmhouse, the Republican planned to declare that President Obama has failed to turn around the economy and the country should turn to him in 2012 — a former businessman with political experience as a onetime state chief executive.

The bucolic setting at Doug and Stella Scamman's Bittersweet Farm was leavened with blustery conditions in the aftermath of a tornado-laden weather system that blew through Romney's home state overnight.

Campaign workers had erected tents and sunscreens for a chili cookoff following the speech, but they dismantled them to avoid them going airborne.

In a nod to the setting, hay bales ringed the stage, media riser, and even the speaker stands.

And this, from Chris Matthews and yesterday’s MSNBC’s Hardball:

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The fact is I am not so sure we need more (quantity and/or quality) moderate Republicans. And while moderate Republicanism is indeed in the blood of the State of Massachusetts, times do change. But, I am not a Republican, so perhaps I should not speak. But I agree that we desperately do need intelligent political discourse – the type that shakes up the status quo across party lines without prompting the mainstream media to go all-a-twitter. We need Newt Gingrich to be able say things like, "I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering" without the world coming to an end. And I agree with Chris Matthews that the fact that Mitt Romney seems to be more about turning his back on his own record than defending “good government,” is evidence enough that he will not be one of those change-makers.