There was a lot of talk just a week ago that Mitt Romney was "inevitable." Mitt Romney started to believe it himself. When the question about releasing his income tax returns came up he said he would release them this April. Assuming. Yes, assuming.
His campaign should live so long.
Inevitable.
No, not "inevitable." As I said repeatedly over the last month, Romney didn't have a path to victory. Here is what I said, with the headline "Mitt Romney does not have a path to victory and Newt Gingrich does."
The group think until recently is that Mitt Romney is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. There is not a path to victory for Mitt Romney. First, Romney can't win in Iowa for many reasons aside from the fact the votes there just don't like him.
I went on, discussing Time magazines's cover story about Mitt Romney's likability, or lack thereof. Could have been titled, "They don't like me, they really don't like me."
Time magazine recently ran a cover story titled "Why Don't They Like Me?" with a half-smiling Mitt Romney. The story was written by Joe Klein and discussed the phenomenon about Romney lack of likability.
It just made sense looking down the line that Romney had no path to victory, at least not a clear path. Certainly not "inevitable."
There’s no path to victory in Iowa for Romney and a small path in New Hampshire that could evaporate quickly.
When it comes to South Carolina and Florida and Romney.
Not.
The political winds appeared they were at Mitt Romney's back. Just ask him at those times. He had won Iowa, he had won New Hampshire convincingly. The polls in South Carolina were showing Romney to be, well, inevitable.
Then it turned out he didn't win Iowa, despite the fact we are talking about a handful of votes. Newt Gingrich unleashed his Super PAC, Winning the Future. The commercials were sharp and poignant as it attacked Romney's time at Bain Capital.
And a little help from CNN's John King who started a debate with a question about Gingrich's second marriage in which Gingrich fiercely fought back. Then there was the wishy-washiness of Romney with the issue of releasing his income tax returns. Gingrich received a little more help from CNN's John King when he asked Romney about releasing his taxes, catching Romney off guard when King brought up his father George Romney.
Mitt Romney said at Thursday's Republican debate that he wasn't sure if he'd follow in the footsteps of his father, former presidential candidate George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns all at once -- drawing boos from the debate crowd.
CNN moderator John King asked, in 1967 "When (your father) did that he said this: 'One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show.' When you release yours, will you follow your father's example?"
"Maybe," said the former Massachusetts governor coyly said.
John is the author of an award-winning book, the 2010 Winner of the USA National Best Book award for African-American studies, published by The Elevator Group Mr. and Mrs. Grassroots: How Barack Obama, Two Bookstore Owners, and 300 Volunteers did it. Also available an eBook on Amazon.
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